i 



DUST 



and 



LIGHT 



John Hall 
WheelocJc 




Pass T S 3 S ^ f . 

Boolc.jililL^___ 

GDHQRIGHT DEPOSIT. / / 



DUST AND LIGHT 



DUST AND LIGHT 



BY 

JOHN HALL WHEELOCK 

AUTHOR OP 

THE HUMAN FANTASY," "THE BELOVED ADVENTURE, 

"LOVE AND liberation" 



— they are still immortal 

Who, through birth's orient portal 
And death's dark chasm hurrying to and fro. 

Clothe their unceasing flight 

In the brief dust and light 
Gathered around their chariots as they go — 

— Shelley. 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1919 



Copyright, 1919, by Charles Scribner's Sons 
Published September, 1919 



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I 



TO 
HARRIET ANNE WEINERT 

IN GRATITUDE FOR HER HELP 

IN THE PREPARATION OP THESE PAGES 

FOR THE PRESS 



Thanks are due to the editors of Scribner's Magazine, 
The Centuryy Harper's Monthly, The American Magazine, 
The Forum, The Smart Set, The Bellman, The Bookman, 
The Dial, Poetry, The International, The Poetry Journal, 
Reedy's Mirror, McClure's Magazine, Contemporary Verse, 
The Lyric, The Poetry Review, Youth, The Art World, The 
Yale Review, etc., for their courteous per^lission to reprint 
many of the following poems. 



CONTENTS 



7. Glimmering Earth 

CLOUDLESS MOONRISE 
^^--EARTH 

SEPTEMBER BY THE SEA 

THE LONELY POET 
j^ STORM AND SUN 

THANKS FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN 

MIDNIGHT 
,^ THE MOONLIGHT SONATA 

DAWN ON MID-OCEAN 

DEAR EARTH 
^GOLDEN NOON 
/"^ MOONLIT EARTH 
^ SUMMER DAWN 
• DEPARTURE 



3 
5 
9 
11 
13 
18 
21 
22 
31 
32 
33 
36 
37 
38 



IX 



CONTENTS 



II. April Lightning 



PAGE 

39 



///. The Awakening Dust 



THY KINGDOM COME I 
FROM A TRANSPORT 

t THE FAR LAND 

i^ LITANY 

EAGLES OF DEMOCRACY 
THE WORLD-SORROW 
HYMN OF MAN, 1917 



85 
89 

90 
93 
94 
96 
97 



IV. The Source 

OASIS 

REVELATION 
CHALLENGE 
REVERENCE 



woman: BIRTH AND THE RETURN THROUGH 
LOVE 



ADORATION 
/ ALL THE MORE 



101 

103 
106 
107 

109 
112 
113 



CONTENTS 



V, Earth Puts Forth Her Dream 

THE OPENING BARS OF WAGNEr's **RING" 117 

ERNEST DOWSON 118 

swinburne 119 
Shakespeare's juliet: in the vault of 

THE CAPULETS 120 

the seventh symphony 121 

LILITH 122 

rossetti ■ 123 

beethoven 124 

TOLSTOI 125 



t- VI. Be Born Again! 



127 



VII. Song of the Moth 

THE SELF 

WINE OF THE WORLD 

ZENITH 

THE PRESENCE 

THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET 

xi 



157 
158 
160 
161 
163 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

170 



/ RETURN AFTER DEATH 171 

. THE DEAD POET 174 

/- EXILE FROM GOD 175 

r. VANISHED 176 

THE GREAT SURRENDER 177 

TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM 178 

A HOLY LIGHT 187 



I 

GLIMMERING EARTH 



Now fade the conflicts and the clamourings 

Of the loud day ; a steadier hand and higher 
Across the broad bosom of Creation's strings 
Draws the most holy bow of deep desire. 



CLOUDLESS MOONRISE 

BRANCHES, drenched with dew. 
Through the moonHght loom, 
Drifted moonhght Hes 
Deep across the room. 

Through the ghmmering aisles 

And wild country ways 
Drifts the fragrant mist. 

Like a cloud that strays. 

Far, and far around 

The grasshoppers' shrill 
Shimmers, and a lone 

Cricket from the hill 

Cries "I love, I love." 

Heaven's holy bound 
Overflows with calm 

Radiance all around. 

Heaven is like a room 

Bared, immense and bright. 
3 



CLOUDLESS MOONRISE 

Earth, each bush and tree. 
Drinks the solemn light. 

On her parted lips. 
Lost in slumber, lies 

The unuttered word 
Out of Paradise. 



EARTH 

GRASSHOPPER, your fairy song 
And my poem alike belong 
To the dark and silent earth 
From which all poetry has birth; 
All we say and all we sing 
Is but as the murmuring 
Of that drowsy heart of hers 
When from her deep dream she stirs: 
If we sorrow, or rejoice, 
You and I are but her voice. 

Deftly does the dust express 
In mind her hidden loveliness, 
And from her cool silence stream 
The cricket's cry and Dante's dream; 
For the earth that breeds the trees 
Breeds cities too, and symphonies. 
Equally her beauty flows 
Into a savior, or a rose — 
Looks down in dream, and from above 
Smiles at herself in Jesus' love. 
Christ's love and Homer's art 
5 



EARTH 

Are but the workings of her heart; 
Through Leonardo's hand she seeks 
Herself, and through Beethoven speaks 
In holy thunderings around 
The awful message of the ground. 

The serene and humble mold 
Does in herself all selves enfold — 
Kingdoms, destinies, and creeds, 
Great dreams, and dauntless deeds, 
Science that metes the firmament. 
The high, inflexible intent 
Of one for many sacrificed — 
Plato's brain, the heart of Christ; 
All love, all legend, and all lore 
Are in the dust foreVermore. 

Even as the growing grass 
Up from the soil religions pass. 
And the field that bears the rye 
Bears parables and prophecy. 
Out of the earth the poem grows 
Like the lily, or the rose; 
And all man is, or yet may be. 
Is but herself in agony 
6 



EARTH 

Toiling up the steep ascent 
Toward the complete accomplishment 
When all dust shall be, the whole 
Universe, one conscious soul. 

Yea, the quiet and cool sod 

Bears in her breast the dream of God. 

If you would know what earth is, scan 
The intricate, proud heart of man. 
Which is the earth articulate. 
And learn how holy and how great, 
How limitless and how profound 
Is the nature of the ground — 
How without terror or demur 
We may entrust ourselves to her 
When we are wearied out, and lay 
Our faces in the common clay. 

For she is pity, she is love, 
All wisdom, she, all thoughts that move 
About her everlasting breast 
Till she gathers them to rest: 
All tenderness of all the ages, 
Seraphic secrets of the sages, 
7 



EARTH 

Vision and hope of all the seers. 
All prayer, all anguish, and all tears 
Are but the dust, that from her dream 
Awakes, and knows herself supreme — 
Are but earth, when she reveals 
All that her secret heart conceals 
Down in the dark and silent loam. 
Which is ourselves, asleep, at home. 

Yea, and this, my poem, too. 
Is part of her as dust and dew. 
Wherein herself she doth declare 
Through my lips, and say her prayer. 



SEPTEMBER BY THE SEA 

THE morning makes a light upon the sea, 
Curving before me, Hke a crescent moon, 
With slender violet waves that gradually 
Kindle into the fiery fields of noon. 

Line upon line, out to the farthest rim 

They reach immeasurably, pale as the breast 

Of a sick child, and tremulous and dim. 

Save where the wind has kissed them out of rest 

So hard it leaves a mark all foam and white. 

O delicate, violet, autumnal sea. 
Like a wide field made for the sheer delight 

Of the cold wind to walk on, and be free, 

Like a clear harp made for the eager hands 
Of the September wind, chilly and pale ! 

There is a wistfulness about the lands 

When summer ebbs and all the flowers fail. 

Therefore I come to you that guard and keep, 
O changeless one, the memories of all things, 
9 



SEPTEMBER BY THE SEA 

The dreams of all the world in the vast sleep 
Of the pale waters, drowsy with murmurings. 

Here deep Eternity has conquered Time, 
No trace of ruthless autumn lingers here; 

But on the shore the roses cease to climb, 
And fading wings ebb with the tidal year. 

Love leaves the body, as summer leaves the lands. 
But the waves, like the heart, remembering moan; 

Therefore I sit beside you on the sands 

That I may mix my memories with your own: 

And the wide, level fields of the flat sea. 

Always the same, reach to the farthest bound, 

With waves lifting and lapsing wearily — 
And the eternal heavens all around. 



10 



THE LONELY POET 

NOW, while the loom of evening spins 
Her veil, the parable begins. 
And God with weariless delight 
Repeats anew the poem of night. 

Softly, softly flows along 
The rhythm of the eternal song — 
In tremor of light and shade is heard 
The lonely Poet's laboring word. 

Against the music of the shrill 
Grasshopper, and the starry trill 
Of the cicadas' cry, the lone 
Cricket's harp makes drowsy drone. 

And one pale star upon the breast 
Of lingering twilight in the west 
Trembles, far over in profound 
Rapture of light the stars are drowned. 

The cup of beauty to the brim 
Is filled with cloudy song and dim 
11 



THE LONELY POET 

Shadow of moonlight, everywhere 

From earth to heaven ascends the prayer. 

O Master, is it not enough ! 
But no, the insatiate heart of Love, 
The Poet's heart, for sheer excess 
Heaps loveHness on loveHness. 

Hark — from the leafy hill near by 
The owlet wakes, and pours his cry 
Into the poem of night ! Now grows 
Beauty too great. Heaven overflows. 



12 



STORM AND SUN 

OLOVE, now the herded billows over the holy plain 
Of the trampled sea move thunderously, and cast 
Their wrath on the dark shore — let us set out again, 
Let us make seaward, and be gone at last 

Into the choiring, clashing, wild waste of waters strown 
Around us, — forward — forward — , and leave behind 

The little frets and the fevers, just we two alone, 
Heart-free, as once in days long out of mind ! 

Forget the city and all its troubles, leave forever 
Our dusty ways! The Eternal 'round us rolled 

Shall wash us white of the little sins and fears that sever. 
Lave us, and leave us lovers as of old — 

Lovers as once in golden days gone by, till sorrow 

Fall from us like a robe, the martyrdom 
Of life on the daily rack: there shall be no Tomorrow, 
Nor Yesterday, but heaven and ocean. — Sweetheart, 
come 

13 



STORM AND SUN 

And on the swelling pillow of the Unbounded lean 
Your cheek, all fiery now — O let us press 

Forward, the changeful furrows of the flashing foam be- 
tween, 
Our glowing bodies into the Loveliness ! 

The waves shatter, the billows break us, the sullen wrath 
Of the surf beats down our foreheads. Line on line 

Rises the majesty of the sea to oppose our path 
With tingling bodies through the stinging brine; 

But in our jubilant breasts the embattled life at bay 
Exults fiercely for joy, the waves cry out 

And shout in answering joy, the salt and savage spray 
Showers our shoulders in the exuberant bout, 

Where we press forward, laughing for lusty love, and the 

hollows 

Receive us and rise, the foam of the breaker's crest 

Unfolds like a flower and dies of its kiss, and subsides, and 

follows, 

Laughing and loving, where our limbs have pressed: 

Till in the lustrous shadow of the last wave before us 
We bow, and from the rolling billow's might 

14 



STORM AND SUN 

Lift glimmering eyelids up, while hearts and lips in chorus 
Mingle with winds and waters their delight. 

Far — far — where the sea-bird sinks weary wings at last 
Before the wrath of the wings of the wind, the sea 

Makes moan, the inconsolable, pale waters are aghast. 
And shudder with dread of their own immensity. 

They murmur with one another, the voice of their vast 
prayer 

Sinks down in supplication, and the sleep 
Of the Supreme is stirred to whispers everywhere — 

The dark and divine sorrows of the Deep. 

Where the heads of the sea were holy and lifted in wrath 
divine 
Now broods the silence, heaven holds its breath, — 
Where the feet of the winds made music far out to the lone 
sea-line, — 
The rapture and awe and silence as of death! 

Hark — how the lonely sea-bird screams above the surges 
And inland reaches ! Now, far out, we roam 

The desert and dumb vast of the dread sea that urges 
Our fitful course far out beyond the foam, 

15 



STORMANDSUN } 

Toward the most pallid rim of cloudy noonday steering ! 

Steadily, while the fluent glooms and grave | 

Lap us and lift, repulse, and pause — the wild and veering ] 

Will of the loving and reluctant wave. | 

The sombre and immense breast of the huge sea ] 

\ 
Lifts in long lines of beauty, the supreme 

Bosom with its vast love rises resistlessly, ■ 

And lapses in long lines into its dream. ] 

Lone to the last marge — lone — lone — lone — < 

And void to where the huddled waters crowd : 

The brim — along the floor of heaven's darkened throne i 

Moves, like a ghost, the shadow of a cloud. \ 

Shadow and light pass over shifting, shine and shade ■ 

Vanish and veer, upon the chilly rim ; 

Kindle like crowns the cloud-crests along the east arrayed \ 

And swords of flame, like swords of the seraphim. \ 

The floors of the sea catch fire, the eye of the world's light j 

Dilates, and into a glory of glittering gold j 

Break the pale greens and purples; the sun in heaven's height j 

Unveils himself for all men to behold :\ 

1 

And all the world is a-riot, behind us and before, 

With fire and color — the heavens roll back their gloom, j 

16 : 



STORM AND SUN 

From zone to zone, from the zenith to the everlasting floor, 
Reaches one resonant and radiant room — 

Light ! — Light ! The astounded, far fields of ocean shine 
Sheer gold and shimmering amber: where we take 

The lips of the wave with laughter your eyes are turned to 
mine. 
Sweetheart, your eyes that burn for beauty's sake. 

They tremble with happy tears and little words unspoken 
Trouble your lips; dumbly, dumbly we know 

./Something starry and strange, that the world's wheel has 

^^^ broken. 

Come back to us out of the long-ago. 

Put out your hand. O cleave the clasp of the close wave, 
turning 

Its fire to flowers ! Put out your hand, and move 
Forward into the radiant far reaches 'round us burning. 

Darling, as once in the old days of love. 

Our hearts drink the wrath and the wonder, the breath of 
the boundless spaces 
Hallows our foreheads, the exceeding might 
Of moving waters around us is music, and on our faces 
The glory of God is shed. His holy light ! 

17 



THANKS FROM EARTH TO 
HEAVEN 

GOD pours for me His draught divine, — 
Moonlight, which is the poet's wine. 
He has made this perfect night 
For my wonder and dehght. 

What is it He would declare 
In this beauty everywhere — 
'What dearest thought of His is heard 
In the moonlight's secret word? 

To the human, the Supreme 
Poet speaks in wind and stream, 
Tenderly He does express 
His meaning in each loveliness. 

Simply does He speak and clear. 
As man to man. His message dear — 
Aye — and well enough He knows 
Who shall understand His rose! 
18 



THANKS FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN 

Night is but His parable 
Secretly where He would tell. 
As to an intimate of His, 
The mystery of all that is; 

Nor humblest, nor most exquisite 
Detail or phrase does He omit 
From His great poem, confident 
It shall be noted what He meant. 

And cunningly doth still devise 
New Aprils for His poet's eyes 
For whose joy all things were wrought. 
That without him were as nought. 

Holy Poet, I have heard 
Thy lost music, Thy least word; 
Not Thy beauty's tiniest part 
Has escaped this loving heart ! 

While the great world goes its way 
I watch in wonder all the day. 
All the night my spirit sings 
For the loveliness of things. 
19 



THANKS FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN 

But for lonely men like me 
It were wasted utterly 
All this beauty, vainly spent, — 
Unavailing lavishment. 

Little cricket, never fear, 
There is one who waits to hear — 
Nor is there loveliness so shy 
It shall escape a poet's eye. 

For the world enough it were 
To have a useful earth and bare. 
But for poets it is made 
All in loveliness arrayed. 

For his eye the little moth 
Wears her coat of colored cloth. 
And to please his ear the deep 
Ocean murmurs in her sleep. 

Rustle gently in the breeze 
For his delight the poplar trees, 
And in the song within his head 
The thanks from earth to heaven is said. 
20 



MIDNIGHT 

\ TOW in the still 

^ ^ Shadow and glamour of the departed sun 
Beauty's immortal ritual is done. 
The divine word and will. 

Now, lost in lone 
Worship and breathless adoration, lies 
The loving at the beloved breast and cries 

His prayer up to her throne. 

Now thrills the dim 
Heart of compassionate and conquering love 
With solemn pride, and from her throne above 

Listens, and leans to him. 

No sound is here. 
Mysteriously the many are made one. — 
O peace, now the eternal will is done. 

And God's own heart how near ! 



21 



THE MOONLIGHT SONATA 

/^^LIMMERING meadows miles aroundy \ 

^^ Drenched with dew and drowsy sound., i 
Drink the moonlight and the dream. 

Veiled in mists the lowlands seerriy ] 

Through wild ways and fragrant aisles ! 

Of the country y miles on miles, ] 

Drifting cloudlike without vnll, '\ 

And soft mist is on the hill. \ 



Everywhere earth's shrill delight 

Shakes and shimmers through the nighty 

Silver tides of music flow 

'Round the world; the cricket's low 

Harp, the starry ecstasy 

Of the keen cicadas' cry 

With "/ lovcy I love, I love,* 

To the cloudless moon above 

Lifts the oldy the endless song. 

And the firefly among 

The low boughs and heavy leaves 



THE MOONLIGHT SONATA 

His hushed flight in silence weaves: 
Deeper than the love they sing. 
The unutterable thing. 
The sheer pang wherewith he glows. 
Burns his body as he goes. 

Now earth draws the trembling veil 
From her bosom cloudy pale, 
And the bridegroom of the night 
Flows to her in solemn light — 
Memories of the absent sun 
Dreaming of his lovely one. 

From that fiery embrace 
Wearied out, with lifted face. 
Tangled hair, and dewy eyes. 
Drowsed and murmurous she lies 
In the bride-sleep, the deep bliss 
After some exalted kiss, 
Swooning through the darkness dim; 
Still with memories of him 
Her hushed breath comes fierce and low. 
And the love that thrilled her so 
Speaks in slumber, from her lips 
The deep word of longing slips, 
23 



THE MOONLIGHT SONATA 

Fragrant is thy flowery hair, 
O beloved, everywhere 
Thy faint odour on the air, 
From dread arches of thy grace 
Wafted, what dark, secret place 
Of dusk tresses in the wild 
Midnight of thy locks beguiled. 
Beckoning vistas of thy sheer 
Maddening loveliness, the dear 
Curves of thy bright beauty, all 
Lure me to wild love: — the call 
Of past lives is in my breast, 
Premonitions, dimly guessed, 
Of seraphic, solemn things. 
Mingled lips and murmurings 
On cool nights that gave me birth. 
Yet, O mother, awful earth ! 
What stark mystery no less 
Breaks the bosom that I press 
Close against thy carelessness. 

Where the holy poem of night 
In veiled music and moonlight, 
Shimmering cries and stars and dreams. 
Onward in soft rhythm streams, 
24 



THE MOONLIGHT SONATA 

With reluctant pulse and pause 
To its lovely ending draws 
Thy long passion, when unroll 
The starred heavens, like a scroll. 
The old parable and story, 
Some transcendent allegory — 
Mother, mother, yet I know 
Of cool nights that whispered so 
When I was not, long ago ! 
When thy beauty, murmuring low. 
With abandon, like a bride. 
Throws her glimmering veils aside. 
The dread love I dare not say 
Turns my trembling lips away, 
Somethmg deeper, something more 
Than I ever guessed before, 
A new homesickness at heart 
Hungering for the home thou art; 
As the rivers to the one 
Sea with solemn longing run, 
So my being to thy breast. 
So my sorrow to thy rest. 

Thou art mother, thou art bride, 
By what dearer name beside 
25 



THE MOONLIGHT SONATA 

Must I name thee, must I call. 
Who art dearer far than all? 

On thy heart I lay my head — 

O what is it thou hast said ! — 

Secret, beautiful and dread — 

Lovely moment drawing near — 

Thought, most terrible and dear: 

To be one with thy complete 

Dark, sweet loveliness, my sweet. 

One with thy wild will again — 

To descend in rushing rain 

To thy ravished breast, to pour 

Through the veins that I adore, — 

Drink deep draughts of thee, and grow. 

Through long love and longing, so 

Into the beloved, flow 

In thy deepest pulse, at home 

In the dark and silent loam 

Drenched with thee, and tremble up 

In the lily's lifted cup — 

Odours, clouds, and starry haze, 

Breath of the wet country ways 

On cool, moon-clear, fragrant nights; 

Or where thy supreme delight's 



THE MOONLIGHT SONATA 

Radiant passion draws aghast 

Sobs of thunder through the Vast — 

Shuddering breath and murmur of 

Thy fierce wrath of sullen love — 

Laughter of thy mingling heart — 

In thy lifted lightnings dart 

Through awed heaven's glimmering bound, 

With bright laughter all around, 

With dark tears into the ground 

Glide, and slake with loving rain 

The parched caverns of thy pain! 

Rapturous bridal ! O wild heart ! 
To be part of thee, a part 
Of this holy beauty here — 
Sacred sorrow drawing near ! 
Sweet surrender — O my sweet. 
Longingly my pulses beat — 
Dazzling thought and fearful of 
The dear fury of thy love — 
Even now that draws me down. 
My faint body to thine own. 
Near and nearer yet, till I 
Tangled in thy being lie. 
Close and close, for sheer excess 
27 



THE MOONLIGHT SONATA 

Wearied out with loveliness: 
All this little self, this me. 
Soothed into the self of thee. 
Rendered up in ecstasy! 

Almost now thou seem'st to steal 
From my breast the self. I feel 
How my being everywhere, 
As in dream, upon the air 
Widens 'round me, till I grow 
All I look on, overflow — ; 
And into the life adored 
All the life of me is poured. 
Through warm portals of thy heart 
Drifting gently where thou art, 
Who art all things, in the breeze 
Stirring all the tangled trees 
To low whispers, how I pass 
Through each tiny blade of grass, 
Tremble in moonlight, and rise 
Looking out of other eyes — 
Mystery of mysteries ! 
Pang of self, and tragical 
Birth into the enlightened All — 
O dark rapture — to flow, press, 
28 



THE MOONLIGHT SONATA 

Cease into thy loveliness. 
With exalted weariness 
Render up myself, and be, 
Selfless, the dear self of thee, 
In divine oblivion 
One with the beloved one ! 

Where I press my burning face 
Weeds and grasses interlace: 
Sweetheart^ are these dewy, soft 
Tears for me, who must so oft 
Perish of thee to be thine f 
Deep I drink of you, divine 
Dizzy draught, bewildering wine I 

In the grass my head is bowed. 
The vague moon is in a cloud. 
From my breast I feel it streamy 
All I loved sOy like a dream — . 
Ahy I cannot understandy 
But the wind is like a hand 
On my forehead in caress. 
And the earth is tendernessy — 
Holy, grave, and very wise — 
The deep tears are in her eyes; 
29 



THE MOONLIGHT SONATA 

While around her sleeplessly 

Shrills the restless will-to-be. 

Passion for eternity 

Shakes in sound, and floats in light 

Through the darkness. Through the night 

Clouds f and dreams, and fireflies. 

And my songs of her arise. 



DAWN ON MID-OCEAN 

VEILED are the heavens, veiled the throne, 
The sacred spaces of the vast 
And virgin sea make sullen moan 

Into the Void whence God has passed. 

With His right hand He wakened it. 

The sorrowing Deep, to sweet dismay, — 

And sighed; with His left hand He lit 

The stars in heaven, and took His way. 

Leaving this loveliness behind: 

The inconsolable Vacancy 
Bears witness in the veiled night and blind 

To some depa'rted Mystery. 

Disconsolate for One withdrawn. 

Moan the vague mouths. One cold and clear 
Star, like a lamp, in the pale dawn 

Trembles for passion : God was here ! 



SI 



DEAR EARTH i 

DEAR Earth, thy soft and murmurous voice I hear, ' 

Thy drowsy cry of inarticulate love ' 
Drawing me downward to thy breast, above 

Thy drowsy breast I bend in joy and fear. i 

Fragrant and dewy are thy locks, dread bliss 

Breathes from thy body's arches. Sweet, I kneel, \ 

And all the senses from my spirit steal. ] 

Upon thy breasts I lay my reverent kiss. < 



But look — the hand of moonlight for a fleet 
Moment the dim and cloudy veil divides — 
Glimmers thy holy body like a bride's — 

My beautiful, — my dark-eyed love, — my sweet ! 



Darling, deep of thy dewy tears I drink, — 
Too fain of thee, alas, too full of thee. 
Faints of thyself my being utterly — 

Sweetheart, into thine arms in death I sink. 



GOLDEN NOON 

NOW part the heavens in cloudless glory, 
And the wide eye of the world's light 
Reopens, like a flower dilating. 

And floods the world with golden might. 

Rose of the heaven ! Heavy flower 

In the clean meadows of the sky ! 
Shed forth the odour of thy splendour. 

Thy dazzled perfume from on high. 

The massive thunder of thy music 

Makes holy harmonies afar, 
The starry mouths are mute before thee, 

O sumptuous and sovereign star ! 

Great chords of light, gigantic, shaken 
With heavy vibrance and immense — 

The gorgeous trumpets of thy zenith 
And noon of thy magnificence ! 

Though soundless to the sensual hearing. 

With sonant light thrilled through and through- 
33 



GOLDEN NOON 

Thine awful and august desire 

On horns of gold blown down the Blue ! 

Priest of the world, in radiance folded 

And veils of blue Immensity ! 
Shed thy triumphant light before us 

And trail thy robes across the sea. 

Shadows and star-beams fly before thee. 

The level floors of the blue Vast 
With lapse of trampling waves adore thee. 

And the soft twilight thrills aghast. 

Like phantoms, or like ghosts, dividing 
Before thy forehead's flame, they flee — 

Darkness and dreams in shifting hollows. 
And shadow-clouds across the sea. 

When on the wave of morning steering 

Breaks 'round the world thy steady prow; 

In rosy foam of light unfolding 

Heaven's billowing deeps dissolve. But now 

The mellow fields lie hushed and helpless 
Beneath thy most enormous might, 
34 



GOLDEN NOON 

And the crushed earth bleeds oozy color 
And golden drippings of thy light 

Beneath that steady weight and wonder. 

Thy ponderous glory over all. 
What solemn silence goes before thee 

Where all the woods were musical ! 

O Father ! Though I may not see thee, 

Nor save through tears to thy blurred face 

Lift up mine eyes, O blurred and golden ! 
Hear now my prayer, and grant me grace. 

Pour through my heart thy cleansing fire, 
That only is unknown of thee — 

Make broad my breast as the horizon, 
And spacious as the sunlit sea; 

Till all my life is searched and riven 

With eager ardor of thine own: 
Till from horizon to horizon 

And blazing zone to blazing zone 

The trumpets of thy light are sounded, 
And the wide heavens clear of gloom. 

Clean-swept, are blinded and bedazzled. 
And bared for thee one radiant room ! 
35 



MOONLIT EARTH 

THE quiet earth in cool felicity, 
With listless lips that all day long implored 
Rest of the sun, her lover and her lord. 
Sleeps in the moonlight of his memory: 
Though far from her, though vanished utterly 
Down fiery spaces, still his love is poured 
Backward in dream upon the most adored. 
With holy moonlight haunting land and sea. 

Still to that heart of darling love he yearns 

Homeward in light, while from lost yesterday 
Upon her face his lonely kisses fall; 
Remembering, remembering, he returns 

To the dear place, and sheds from far away 
The moonlight of his memory over all. 



36 



SUMMER DAWN 

HERE, in the pallid chamber, where I lie, 
Out of the hungry hollows of the night 
There comes a sombre and an ancient cry — 
Dawn flowers up along the windy sky. 
Immense and white. 

Laughable sadness fills me silently: 

Ever unto my spirit, whip-poor-will, 
You are the wail of days that used to be, 
The voice of my lost childhood calling me 
Beyond the hill. 



sr 



DEPARTURE 

ONE last look, and then — farewell to you forever, 
Room that I have loved, dearest place of all ! 
Softly through the window pours the lonely moonlight 
Slumbers on the bed, slumbers on the wall. 

Faint in glimmering fields the grasshoppers are shrilling 
As on nights of old, and a cricket, too. 

Bravely his one note drones solemnly and slowly, — 
Branches in the light droop all drenched with dew. 

Here is the low table where we laughed together. 
Chairs, where we have sat, huddle side by side: 

In the quiet night-time the old house is musing 

Deep on vanished days, and old dreams that died. 

Where my youth has sorrowed now lies only moonlight, 
— Moonlight on the bed — moonlight on the floor — , 

And across the pillow where your head lay dreaming, 
O my lost beloved, — moonlight evermore — . 



38 



II 

APRIL LIGHTNING j 

1 



In the harsh world of effort and of pain 
And many a buffet rude, the lands of death 
And fierce survival, see, — in the little room 
Sits the one kind, the one consoling thing — • 
Where your beloved with brave beauty dear. 
Frail body swaying, and laughing lips of love^ 
Lures your sad heart to the most fugitive joy. 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



A PRIL was in the air, 
^~*^ Your sweet lips whispered, *'Take ! 
Bravely you bade love's will 
Be done for love's own sake. 

The Spring was full of kindness. 
And the heaven in your eyes, — 

Bravely you bowed and accepted 
Spring's loveliest sacrifice. 

And all your life in flower. 

Dear, to my very own. 
As the meadows to the Springtime, 

Lay graciously overthrown. 



41 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



II 



MY sweet is a thief; all life, all love, all song, 
From the loved breast into her own she steals- 
Life hastens unto the breast where life belongs, 
As a faint moth that toward a flower reels. 



Her body's vehement loveliness and light 

All joy, ail love, all hope, all song, all power. 

To be wasted across the chalice of her life. 

Lures with soft beauty, like an unfolding flower. 

Love is her beauty's slave that she compels 

To be wasted upon her sweetness night and day — , 

O Loveliness lures Love to die for her. 

Beauty lures Love to give himself away ! 



42 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



III 

THRILL to the core of my pulses, 
Dear, with your very own ! 
Let me drink in around me 
No self but yours alone, — 



o 



Feel you, and breathe you, and live you, 

Till the penetrant loveUness 
Even to the deep core 

Pervade me and possess ! 

Till quickened and drenched with your spirit. 

Saturate through and through, 
I tremble into your being. 

Myself no more, — but you I 



43 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



IV 

TOVELY night that drawest near, 
-L-' Thou art terrible and dear, — 
With the thought of thee at noon, 
Sweet and dread, my senses swoon. 

With the thought of the dear might. 
Her bared beauty in the night. 
That fierce sweetness unsubdued. 
Her wild ways in wayward mood. 

O my own, what must be done 
For thy sake, beloved one. 
Ere the morning, to fulfill 
The young ardors of thy will ! 

My blood trembles, my heart's beat 
Shakes, the life of me, my sweet, 
To thy life lies overthrown. 
That must give thee all his own. 

Idly the long hours stray. 
The long twilight of the day 
44 



APRIL LIGHTNING 

Faints, and dies for sheer excess 
Of the evening's loveHness!, 

In the self beloved he gives 
All his self away — and lives: 
Nearer is the hour sped, 
The dear beauty, dark and dread. 

So my spirit utterly 
Faints for thee, and dies of thee. 
That must be, ere morning shine. 
One with thee, and wholly thine. 



45 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



V 

IN that moment, 
Before at your heart I surrendered myself completely, 
Long, long did I look 
On the dear and the inexorable face; 
And as one about to die 
Might salute the conqueror, so I kissed it, 
Bowing my head, and heard 

The voice of Life from your breast calling, calling 
To the bright doom. 



46 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



VI 



OYOU are wise in many things, 
Between your languid breath and breath 
Heaves with a thousand murmurings 
The tidal pulse of life and death. 

All my desire, how vain it is. 

And all desire — ah, how vain 
You know, yourself have felt the kiss. 

The barren pleasure, and the pain; 

And smilingly, as from a height. 

You look upon me far below — 
And half in pity, half in fright. 

Lean down your lips, and touch me, so. 



47 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



VII 

SWEET, why will you still refuse. 
Still refrain, and still delay ! 
Bow — and let the old kindness, dear. 
Be done in the old way. 

Bow your head, and let the brave 
Miracle of the insistent Spring 

Pass, and be done between our lips. 
Here at our hearts that cling. 



48 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



VIII 

NOW, the stars of twilight 
One by one depart- 
Still your heart in slumber 
Trembles at my heart. 

O the darling beauty. 
Helpless as in death ! 

Love, for reverent rapture, 
Hardly dares draw breath 

Lest his breathing wake you 

Into grief again — , 
Lovely is the burden. 

Lovely is the pain. 

Nightlong will I bear it. 
Sleepless, at my breast. 

Not to stir your slumber — , 
Not to break your rest. 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



IX 



EVEN as the rose her beauty, flower by flower, i 

So Life sheds love with rapture, breath by breath; ! 

Blossoming deathward, we give ourselves away ) 
At the dear breast: Love is the path to Death. 

But the sweet Springtime body lures and lures; 

Even as the flowers, our very youth of May ■ 

We render up at the beloved breast, I 

At the dear breast that steals it all away. .1 



50 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



IF, reborn, you return 
To the earth as a boy. 
As a girl will I come 
To renew the old joy. 

O the eager boy-face — 

The dear eyes not unknown — 
The sweet, opposite strength 

That makes war on my own ! 

What grace will I give you. 

What bounteousness. 
And all the kind joy 

And the love I possess — 

In the Spring, in the Spring, 
When the hawthorne is white. 

In the midsummer night. 
In the silence of night, 

As you give me them now — , 
Though the lips be above, 
51 



APRIL LIGHTNING 

Or the lips be below. 

They shall greet you with love ! 

But if as a girl 

You return to the earth. 
As a boy will I pass 

Through the portals of birth; 

Still ever to be 

Through all cycles of breath. 
Through the soft revolutions 

Of life and of death. 

Your opposite ever, 

Your fate and dear foe — , 
Though the lips be above. 

Or the lips be below. 



52 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XI 

WHEN your eyes are closed in love 
Softlier than soft lids in death 
Sealed forever, when your bosom 

Heaves with the resistless breath, — 



Ah, when beauty is overthrown, 

The breast shudders, the heart sighs. 

Bending over them I behold, 

Closed as in death, your love-closed eyes ! 



53 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XII 

WITH what fierce and holy longing. 
With what ecstasy of pain, 
Toward each other that we need so, 
Sweet, we rush, we haste again ! 

From the fountain-heads of beauty. 
From the well-springs of delight 

With fierce rapture rearisen. 

Each on each, as day and night 

For the opposite dear other 

Thirsting, with immortal pain 

Slakes the loneliness of being 
In the self beloved again. 



54 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XIII 

SO utterly did I adore thee 
That darhng night in dear embrace, 
Out of myself my longing bore me 

To the lost home, the longed-for place: 
And I became thee, my soul wore thee 
As her own body, for a space ! 



55 ! 

'J 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XIV 

I DREAMED I passed a doorway 
Where, for a sign of death, 
White ribbons one was binding 
About a flowery wreath. 

What drew me so I know not. 

But drawing near I said, 
"Kind sir, and can you tell me 

Who is it here lies dead?" 

Said he, "Your most beloved 

Died here this very day. 
That had known twenty Aprils, 

Had she but Hved till May." 

Astonished I made answer, 
" Good sir, how say you so ! 

Here have I no beloved, 

This house I do not know." 

Quoth he, **^Vho from the world's end 
Was destined unto thee 
56 



APRIL LIGHTNING 

Here lies, thy true beloved, 
Whom thou shalt never see." 

I dreamed I passed a doorway 
Where, for a sign of death, 

White ribbons one was binding 
About a flowery wreath. 



57 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XV 



TOVE, for the world your pity, or the gay 

L/ Moods of your careless and abundant grace, 

The language of the laughter of your face 
And lips of luring all the livelong day. 

But, sweet, for me in the lost night and lone 
The sacred frenzy of your breast of love 
Where the inexorable ardors move. 

And lips, all quivering, salt against my own ! 



58 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XVI 

ET me here at your heart weep out my woe, 
All the wild shame, dear, and the nameless grief. 
Till the long sigh that brings the soul relief 
Sink back, and sorrow into silence flow. 

Where should I turn to, if not here, for rest — 
Or sorrow save at the source of sorrow bare? 
But O the gulf 'twixt spirit and spirit there — 

Alone at your heart I lie, alone at your breast, 

While the lost love droops dead between ! Too well 
/ I know there is no loathlier hell than this, 

Than the cold touch of the first loveless kiss; 
But the tears fail us at the heart of hell. 

O only once, 'mid all the thirst of the years. 
To glut grief at the bosom that might make 
His heaven yet, and the whole heart to slake 

Once only with the wanton waste of tears ! 



59 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XVII 



T 



HE weary joy and the familiar peace 

Wherewith we close, after long leagues of strife, 
Is older and more sorrowful than life. 



Up the sharp scale of beauty passion runs, 
And sinks, after the rapture and the pain, 
Into the grave and general doom again. 



60 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XVIII 

T DO not love to see your beauty fire 
* The light of eager love in every eye, 
Nor the unconscious ardor of desire 

Mantle a cheek when you are passing by; 
When in the loud world's giddy thoroughfare 

Your holy loveliness is noised about — 
Lips that my love has prayed to — the gold hair 

Where I have babbled all my secrets out — 

O then I would I had you in my arms. 

Desolate, lonely, broken, and forlorn, 
Stripped of your splendor, spoiled of all your charms; 
So that my love might prove her haughty scorn — 
So I might catch you to my heart, and prove 
'Tis not your beauty only that I love ! 



61 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XIX 

I THOUGHT of you when in the pallid dawn 
Glimmered day's loveliest and loneliest star, 
Infinitely in the pale blue withdrawn, 

Touching my heart with beauty from afar; 
Where bending with her blossoms the white spray. 

After the passing of a sudden shower. 
Trembled all dewy in the wind of May — 

I thought of your white loveliness in flower. 

And once in the deep wonder of a dream 

You came to me, and your clear face was bowed 
Over my face, like light on a dark stream. 

And your soft hair fell 'round me like a cloud; 
And then I woke — but still, when you were gone. 
Like music in my heart you lingered on. 



62 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XX 

TIS not your darling loveliness alone 
That draws me, the proud splendor of your face, 
Beautiful as a conqueror's on his throne. 
Or a swift runner's in an eager race; 
Not that carved throat, that chalice of sweet sound. 

Nor eyes that are the heavens of my prayer, 
Pale, perfect brows from many a conquest crowned 
Victorious, nor the halo of your hair. 

These the dull crowd gape after, little they 

Guess the still lovelier being hid from view, 
The pilgrim in this prison-house of clay, 
TVTiich is yourself, the very soul of you — 

Whose banner Love here flings to heaven unfurled. 
And bares his shining sword to all the world ! 



63 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXI 

LIFE let me squander and lavish 
-' Recklessly, without rest, 
And waste myself forever 

At the beloved breast — 
As Night at the heart of Morning, 

To become her, gives up breath- 
Faint, as at Song's heart Silence, 
Lost, as at Life's heart Death ! 



64 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXII 

FROM my own lips I drink your tears; 
Their taste is bitterer than gall. 
Is this the end, the end of all? 

Is this the summit of your beauty. 
Your beauty's beauty have I had? 
O sweet, and yet I am not glad ! 



65 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXIII i 

AH, never in all my life | 

Have I ever fled away | 

From the loneliness that follows i 

My spirit night and day. ] 

Though I fly to the dearest face, j 

It follows without rest — 

To the kind heart of love \ j 

And the beloved breast. \ ! 

Though I walk among the crowd, i 

Still I walk apart: / i 

Alone, alone I lie ' ; 

Even at the loved one's heart ! : 



66 ] 



\ 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXIV 

WHEN the old evening was slowly growing gray 
My restless heart would leave me in peace no more, 
And I arose and wandered far, far away, 
As I had done a thousand times before. 

And when I had wandered far, far away, 

I lifted up my hands in loneliness once more, 

And prayed with all my heart, until I could not pray. 
As I had done a thousand times before. 

I prayed with all my heart, until I could not pray, /< 
For what I knew could be never, never more, 

And rose up in bitterness, and slowly came away — 
As I had done a thousand times before. 



67 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXV 

AGAIN the weary longing 
-i» Cries out in me for rest. 
That dreads, and yet desires 
The obHvion of your breast. 

Alas, too well he knows it — 
There is no other way — 

Again he must die to love you. 
As darkness dies of day. 

For pity's sake be cruel — 
Lean down your lips again. 

And give him the kind death, dear, 
That puts an end to pain I 



APRIL LIGHTNING j 

i 
'i 
i 
\ 

XXVI I 

i 



THE shivering and shining waters move 
Under a low moon in the windy sky. 
The stars hang pale and breathless far abov 
O to be killed here by the things I love, 
To mix with all this beauty, and to die ! 



69 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXVII 

GIVE me your pitiful, soft hand, and lay 
Your cheek against my shoulder — let your head 
Rest heavily, and your loose hair be shed 
Where the heart breaks with what it cannot say: 
Springtime is in the air, the winds of May 
Rustle the silken curtains, and are fled — 
Give me your hand — ah, let no word be said — 
Let the great will of silence have its way ! 

You do not love me. And at last I know 
How far lies the lost land for which I pine; 
But in the lonely passion of my mood 
I feel your pulses toward my pulses flow. 

And the dear blood that through your hand to mine 
Whispers her pity in the solitude. 



70 



w 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXVIII 

HY wilt thou bow thine heart to mine, and shed 
Wild tears for me, as for one already dead? — 
Alas — and am I already dead to thee — \ 



O sweet, at thine heart, here at thy living breast, 
Am I already only one with the rest, 
A ghost, a memory ! 



71 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXIX 

YOU were the instrument on which I played, 
Such heavenly music from your heart I wrung 
And echo, where on the strings my fingers strayed. 
Of a new song that never yet was sung ! 

Now you have left me, dear, how shall I bear. 
When lesser hands over the chords are moved 

Of that most exquisite instrument, to hear 

All harsh and jangled the great song I loved? 



72 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXX 

UNDER your window, deep in the heart of the night, 
Something is crying under the starry sky, 
Between the going night and the growing Hght, 
It is I, it is I. 



Under your window cries without quiet or rest, 
■ Something that cries, with the hurrying winds that cry, 

For the you that sleeps deep in the heart of your breast; 
It is I, it is I. 



73 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXXI 

WHEN I had need of you, you would not hear; 
Now that amid the anguish and the smart 
You turn to me, to the last crack of doom 
I will not fail, — O dear and careless heart ! 



74 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXXII 

ONLY yesterday these eyes 
Drank your loveliness that here 
Breathed and trembled — now it lies 
All in dust, that beauty dear: 

In the darkness of the grave 

Broken, broken, spoiled, and spent, — 
Like an unavailing wave. 

On death's shore in discontent ! 

No farewell you made, nor said 
Aught in leaving us, but bright, 

Careless, and disdainful, fled 
Back into the lonely night. 

Like a flash of lightning fleet, 

Blinding the soft sky of Spring, 

Was your beauty — O so sweet. 
And so swiftly vanishing ! 



75 



A 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXXIII 

THE thought of you is woven through the Springtime 
Like a sad minor in the psean of Joy; 
I cannot see the Spring and quite forget, 
Nor is the Springtime anymore the same. 

You were the tenderness of her wide hills, 
The patient longing and the wistfulness 
Of all her tremulous blossoms on the air 
Gently unfolded for the first, sweet time, 
— Her trustful loveliness in mute appeal. 

Each year repeats my sorrow but anew: 
When autumn darkens o'er the solemn lands. 
To me it is as if again I see 
Upon the face the most beloved on earth. 
The rapture and Springtime once of all my life, 
The first, sad lines of shame and sorrow there, 
Stealing its whole brave loveliness away. 



76 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXXIV 

SUCH flowers as I brought to you in life 
I bring you now to lay upon your grave. 
Now all your dear defiances are dust, 

And all your beauty broken, like a spent wave. 

O swift and sweet and most untameable. 

What pity should I bring you now to grieve you ! 

Ah, though from love you hid away your face 

Deep in the dark, yet love will never leave you. 

Now is all memory of you wiped away 
Out of all men forevermore, and yet, 

O foolish heart and most adorable, 

Though none remember, I will not forget! 



77 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXXV 



NOT your heart's kingdom did I abdicate i 
Where royally in splendor I had reigned, 

Nor base admittance, nor consignment deigned ; 

When the usurper hammered at the gate; \ 

But heavily and to the hand of Fate j 

Love bowed his head, to this extreme constrained — \ 

While deeplier his dying life-blood stained ^ 
The regal purple of the robes of state. 



Then through the outer court there ran a word, 
And from the throng a mighty murmuring 

Broke on his soul, in pangs of death deferred 
And anguish of supremest suffering. 

And far away a fading voice he heard, 

Crying "The King is dead. Long live the King !" 



78 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXXVI 

IN dreams you come to mock me. In deep night. 
When dark is all the earth and slumber-still. 
Save for the streaming of the pale starlight 
And far-off wailing of the whip-poor-will. 

Then through the room that held you once you move 
With the old carelessness and dear disdain, 

And lift your hands up in the way I love — 
And the old ritual we repeat again. 

Still from your lips that secret I entreat — 
The riddle still unanswered evermore — 

And to your lips your finger-tip in sweet 
Command you lift and silence, as before; 

And in the pallor of the waning night, 
Laughing, but silently, you fade away: 

And morning glimmers, and the feeble light 
Widens into the common blaze of day. 



79 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXXVII 

STELLA we called you, you whose young joy shed 
Light, starry bright, on these dark ways below; 
Now that her fire lies quenched among the dead, 
"Stella," we think, "bright star set long ago." 



80 



APRIL LIGHTNING 



XXXVIII 

YOUR loveliness was like a wave, 
The sudden stroke of her delight 
Flooded my heart's adoring cave: 
The shock of the beloved might 
Startled the gloom to starry light, 
That gave it back, and drank, and gave. 

But broken, broken is her strength. 

That vehement glory loved before, 
The sweet rage of her radiant length 
Shattered and shed forevermore: 

The adorable ardor, the dear might, 
Hurled itself deathward with delight,- 
And sank upon the sounding shore. 



81 



Ill 

THE AWAKENING DUST 



God is all things everywherey 

In Mind He wakes from slumber deep — 
Man is His eternal prayer. 

And the dust is God asleep. 



THY KINGDOM COME! 

NOW in the east the morning dies, 
The full light of the splendid sun 
Strikes downward on our lifted eyes 
And the long journey is begun: 
Across the shattered walls 
A voice prophetic calls. 
With tumult and with laughter 
We rise and follow after. 

The modern world, immense and wide, 

Awaits us, huger than before. 
With new stars swimming in the Void, 
And Science broadening evermore 
The sweep of the limitless Vast, 
The Past is dead and past; 
Yet through it all forever 
One voice is silent never. 

'Mid iron wheels and planets whirled. 
The clanging city, in the street, 

— ^The machinery of the modern world — 
His lips cry loudly and entreat, 

85 



THY KINGDOM COME! 

Like one that lifts his head 
For a second time from the dead, 
— Out of the Ages' prison 
The new Christ re-arisen! 

O holy spirit — O heart of man ! 

Will you not listen, turn, and bow 
To that clear voice, since time began 
Loud in your ears, and louder now ! 
Mankind, the Christ, retried — 
Recrowned, recrucified; 
No god for a gift God gave us. 
Mankind alone must save us. 

Will you not hear hira — reach your hand !- 

From factory, tenement and slum 
His voice pleads vainly in the land, 

Ah, heart of man, the time has come ! 
The voice of Cain that wailed 
Grew sorrowful and failed. 
But a new voice rings deeper, 
"You are your brother's keeper." 

O world, grown pitiless and grim ! 

O world of men, had you but known 
86 



THY KINGDOM COME! 

Your brother is your Christ, through him 
You must be saved and him alone ! 
Love for his sorrows — love 
Alone can lift you above 
The pain of your misgiving, 
The doom and the horror of living. 

Within ourselves we must find the light 

And in ourselves our gods to-be, 
Not throned beyond the stars of night; 
Here, in America, we must see 
The love of man for man, 
The new world republican, — 
A heaven, not superhuman, 
Reborn in man and woman. 



Forward — ! Truth glorifies, not kills 

The ancient marvel of the soul, 
Each new progression but fulfills 

That wonder, — the wheels of the world that roll 
Thundering, but proclaim 
God with a louder name; 
Science, revealing, rehearses 
But vaster universes. 
87 



THY KINGDOM COME! 

Though the dark veil of dusk and doom 
You strip from off the Soul of things, 
Though with new torches through the gloom 
You hunt Him on untiring wings. 
And in the starry space. 
You shall not find His face; 
A voice comes following after 
Out of the dust with laughter. 

The Vision— the Ideal— the God- 
Not anything ever may destroy. 
Then let us follow, winged and shod 

With love, with courage and with joy; 
Herein alone is the truth, 
The glory and fire of youth. 
Herein all high endeavor. 
Forever and forever ! 



88 



FROM A TRANSPORT 

LAND calls to land, and on the huddled hills 
-^ Of field and city many a sound is heard 
Of horn and whistle, motor and gong afar; 
But we must follow down the trackless path 
Of the unfurrowed and abundant sea. 
Over the mute road of unending waves, — 
The desert of the Deep, divine and sad. 
Where between daylight and dim starlight blows 
Immensity, which is the breath of God, 
Between earth's warring nations ringed around. 



89 



THE FAR LAND 

WE are sighing for you, far land — 
We are praying for you, far land, 
All our life long, working, waiting, night and day: 
But as waves that die to reach the farther shore 
Break our hearts that die to reach you evermore — 
All our hearts are breaking, breaking toward that shore, 
O far land, so near and far away ! 

At the lips of the beloved. 

At the breast of the beloved, 
Like waves that seek the land, and sink forlorn — 

O to reach it we have died, but to that beach 

Where the beloved is love may not reach ! 

Our children's children even shall not reach 
The far land where all of us were born. 

Through the terror of the ages 
We have sought it, till the ages 
Have stamped our lifted faces with our love: 

But long though we have wandered, where we are 
The far land is not. O that land is far ! 

90 



THE FAR LAND 

Beyond the night, beyond the morning-star 
The far land grows further as we move. 

In music and in story. 
In song and sacred story 

We yearned to it, in color and in sound: 
But swifter than the soul the secret flies. 
The vision pales — beyond, beyond it lies. 
Beyond all songs, beyond all harmonies, 

The far land that we have never found. 

In the sweat of daily labor. 

In the anguish of our labor 
We strove to bind it fast in steel and stone: 

But lo — the walls were dust, the work was naught. 

And O it was not what the heart had sought ! 

'Twas something dearer that our blood had bought — 
The far land that we have never known. 

Beyond long sea-horizons. 
Beyond sad sea-horizons 
Our furrowing keels have wandered in that quest; 
Beyond the sunset, tremulous and dear, 
Glimmered that land, but as our prows drew near 
91 



THE FAR LAND 

Faded the dream, the far land is not here, | 



The far land, the home-land of the breast. 

So we built ourselves a heaven, 

Our God we set in heaven. 
With prayer and praise we wrought them to our will: 

But they could not fill the measure of our love 

For the far land — O they were not great enough ! 

There is nothing, there is nothing great enough ! 
The far land is something greater still. 

We are sighing for you, far land — 
We are dying for you, far land. 

In the trenches, in the bloody ruck and blind. 
We are coming, we are coming, every breath 
Is a wave that bears us nearer to you, death 
Seals our cry. O might our children find ere death 

The far land that we have died to find ! 



92 



LITANY 

FAINT as the murmuring of a widowed crone 
That mourns one memory forevermore, 
(Now that she sees it all— O now at last !) 
Hark — in the church the thin voice of the World, 
Repeating sad, repentant words, and slow, 
For the old murder of her patient Christ. 
O now she sorrows for Him — hark — how soft . . . 
Who loved her in her youth, when all her breast 
Was strong and cruel as a laughing girl's. 



93 



EAGLES OF DEMOCRACY 

CHAPMAN gone, and Lufbery flown his last brave flight 
to the farthest place ! — 
Bow your head for the dauntless dead — in grief and glory 

lift up your face — 
Raise a shout to the winds about, to voice the triumph of 
all the Race ! 

Yes, for still what the human will may dare to dream of 

the strange and new. 
Still we find the hand and the mind to dare the devil, and 

see it through — 
The hand and the brain to dare the pain, till doubt be slain 

and the dream come true. 

Csesar's pride may debar and divide men's hearts from men 

with the spears of war. 
These are brothers that make all others brothers and lovers 

from shore to shore — 
Man, not men, one s,pirit again in the struggle Godward 

forevermore. 



EAGLES OF DEMOCRACY 

Each in the Race, not each in his place, the king and the 

beggar, the sage and the clod. 
Lives or dies, must sink or rise; on the road of the ages that 

Man has trod 
All together v/e brave the weather— the upward march of 

the soul toward God. 

Though to the earth, whence we all have birth, their bodies 

sank when the worst was done. 
Not with these down the baffled breeze their souls sank, 

soaring beyond and on. 
Upward ever, and on forever, till all the glory of all be won. 

Hail, all hail, in the beating gale still battling onward against 
the blast ! 

The motors hum and the stars cry "Come — ." Hail! All 

hail ! And farewell at last — 
Song would follow, but sinks back hollow and worn with 

winging the windy Vast. 



95 



THE WORLD-SORROW 

IN dreams I found Her, by the crimson tide 
Of the world's tumult throned, — awful and still: 
Her sloping breast was like a slumbrous hill. 
Or mighty forest where all winds have died. 
There was no pity in Her face, nor pride, 
But flawless grief, and the unflinching will 
Of sorrow, voiceless and supreme, did thrill 
My reckless heart to reverence long denied. 

And to that dreadful and oblivious breast 

My songless lips and dreamless heart I pressed. 

And felt, in the large calm of Her embrace, 
The perfect and inexorable Truth 
Humble with hallowing hands my grieving youth 

Into the shoreless grief of all the race. 



HYMN OF MAN, 1917 

ONOW to Thee, who art our God, 
We Hft our voices crying, 
"For the long path that must be trod 
Give us a faith undying ! " 
The years and ages roll, 
Still steadfast stands the soul: 
Strong love and flawless faith. 
Triumphant over death. 

Not anything shall conquer. 

Give us the victory, O Lord, 

Not beggarlike we cower — 
Man's will is his own holy sword, 
Within us is the power. 

The sad and sacred doom 
That bears us to the tomb 
Makes humble not our hves. 
More undefeated strives 

The God within us Godward. 

No less than what we will, we can — 
The ages shall fulfill it— 
97 



HYMN OF MAN, 1917 , 

! 

Man is the highest hope of Man, I 

If he but only will it: j 

Though prophecy be dumb, i 

Yet shall Thy kingdom come ■ 

And not in heaven above, — 

On earth the reign of love 

'Twixt man and man shall bring it. 

The centuries and the cycles groan : 

Before Thy vast desire, \ 

And all the starry heavens sown ; 

With everlasting fire; . 

Lo — Thou art everywhere, . 

In earth and sea and air, j 

The spirit and the clod — . 

In Man, too, dwells the God, i 

And who shall crush, or kill it ! \ 



98 



IV 

THE SOURCE 



Bewildered — rapturous — faint — 
Aghast, Life leans upon the breast of Love, 
At the most holy and triumphant bosom. 
In the revealing moment. With what pain, 
With what deep longing on the magnificent Breast, 
Beneficent, and eternal, and supreme. 
She leans her temporal beauty's sad, sweet weightl 
Ah, with what starriest longing all in vain 
Lies fugitive beauty against immortal Beauty — 
The life that dies at the breast of the Life eternal! 



OASIS 

VAINLY for what I longed for 
I searched from east to west, 
But ere my Hps had spoken 

The beloved heart had guessed. 

Under the tree of Life 

She lured my heart aside, — 
Ere my lips had spoken 

Silently she replied. 

I leaned to her body's beauty. 
The radiant loveliness — , 

Ere my lips had spoken 

Her beauty whispered yes. 

With graciousness of pity 

Abundantly she shared 
The bounty of her being. 

Her loveliness unbared, — 
101 



OASIS 

The never-failing arms 

And the sacrificial breast, 

For a refuge in the desert 
Of death from east to west. 



102 



REVELATION 

FROM the bright form now ghdes the veil, 
Leaving your slender beauty bare — 
Your loveliness, extreme and frail, 
Unfolds before me like a prayer 
In tender silence, the supreme 
Message of life, the wistful dream. 

The source whither all being yearns 

Glimmers revealed; the sacred source. 
Toward which all life forever turns, 
With secret and with subtle force 

Lures me and draws me, sounds her clear 
Challenge and invitation dear. 

All for which love so blindly longs 

Speaks in this presence; here is heard 
The hymn of hymns, the song of songs, 
Beauty's unutterable word 

Beseeching the proud heart of Pain, 
"Be born again, be born again !" 
103 



REVELATION 

All joy, all wonder, all delight 

Of beauty in herself, is bared 
Here at this breast, with exquisite 

Cunning for love's delight prepared. 
To weary life's rebellious cry 
The sovereign and serene reply — 

Deftly with darling prescience wrought 

To pleasure the beloved one, 
A spur upon the tired thought 
Of life seeking oblivion. 

For the old hope's sake ceaselessly 
Compelling him again to be. 

And I, that foolishly to Death 

So lately prayed that he might come. 
The sweet and the persuasive breath 
Of very Life, calling me home. 

Through all my recreant pulses feel- 
Tlie fragile splendor's mute appeal. 

Ancient, inexorable, and wise, 

Through countless ages still the same, 
To me the Eternal Kindness cries 

Out of this form, and puts to shame 
104 



REVELATION 

My traitorous heart: all unexpressed 
Passion sinks awed within the breast. 

And can it be, this flawless flower, 

This frame of all dear bounties must 
With every breath, with every hour 

Press toward the darkness? Shall the dust 
Such awful tribute ask? Ah, no — 
Eternal Pity, say not so. 

Yet so it is. Then am I proud 

That I the fate of all things fair 
And brave, that in the dust have bowed 
Their darling heads in death, may share; 
For the first time since I drew breath 
I know the holy pride of death. 

O Life, so insatiable, so dear — 

Sorrow resistless — for your sake 
At the bright breast of being here 
Again I bow, again I take 

With solemn tears the lips of pain, 
Here die to be reborn again ! 



105 



CHALLENGE 

NEVER the woman's heart was all subdued, 
Nor the last secret of it quite possessed; 
Lovely and tireless, and a challenge still. 
Laughingly, out of the weary arms of love 
Virgin it rearises ever again — 
Wayward, elusive, inviolable and fleet, 
A tantalus and a fierce loveliness beyond. 



106 



REVERENCE 

WHERE thy bosom draws profound 
The deep mystery of breath 
The dark churchyard all around 

Slumbers in the dream of death. 

In the heavings of thy breast. 
With resistless ebb and flow 

Lifting, lapsing, without rest 

The sweet wave comes to and fro. 

Where the inmost Awe sustains 
The dear being that thou art, 

Where the sovereign Rhythm reigns 
In the palace of thy heart. 

There I hear forevermore — 

Holy, tragic, and alone — 
How life's sea with sullen roar 

Ebbs in awe to the Unknown. 
107 



REVERENCE 

And I bow to thee, supreme 

Sumptuous splendor, flame that flies; 
I adore thee, fragile dream — 

The deep tears are in my eyes. 



108 



WOMAN: BIRTH AND THE 
RETURN THROUGH LOVE 

BEAUTY, you are the flame the breath 
Of windy and unwilling Death 
Quivers to quench, the battle-gage 
Flung in his face with whom you wage 
For us the immemorial strife 
Of love, our champion of Life — 
'Mid the dark terrors and profound 
That girdle and curing us 'round, 
O Loveliness, your flag unfurled 
Is Life's lone banner in the world ! 

Your sweetness the proud heart of Pain 
Beseeches to be born again 
With promise of your loveliness 
That lures him lifeward still, to press 
Forward, nor faint, but for your sake 
The ancient yoke and burden take 
Renewed, the lonely and forlorn 
Adventure; till, from you reborn, 
Antares-like touching the earth 
109 



WOMAN: BIRTH AND 

And holy well-head of our birth, 

We, with the child's heart, reassume — 

And lips of laughter through the gloom — 

Our painful pilgrimage anew 

Back to the mother-land of you. 

Your pity falls like healing rain 
On Life that brings to you again. 
Still urgent evermore to be. 
His prayer for immortality. 
Ah, well enough you know the quest 
That leads him backward to your breast- 
Hearth of the Race, whereon the light 
Of the world's fire is kept bright 
Perpetually ! Sacred spring. 
From which we all are wandering. 
Whither we all return at last 
And, the long exile overpassed, 
From mother to beloved run 
Love's orbit, till all love be done ! 

Our varying and veering will 
Deserts you and desires still — 
We are the wanderers, you, the home 
Toward which we ever range and roam — 
110 



THE RETURN THROUGH LOVE i 

All we are wanderers, roam and range 

The hills of chance, you know not change. 

Keeping perpetually pure i 

The dream whereby we all endure. 1 

O sacred well-head ! Fountain-sun. ! 

O far land, wooed, yet never won. 

And still beyond us ! Steady light, [ 

That leads us wandering in the night ! \ 

Still we seek backward, still return — 

The blind eyes brighten — yield and yearn j 

Our hungering hearts — from alien shores j 

The lost wave of the spirit pours | 

Homeward in passionate penitence J 

To the dear breast of Being, whence ' 

Our children's children rearise ; 

And seek you with the self-same eyes. : 



111 



ADORATION 

'yHOUGH Death and Time shall break you, 

-■' There is a triumph here 
In mortal things and human. 
In tragic things and dear. 



— The shapely, stately splendour 
Of arms and breasts and hips. 

And the defeated body. 
And the defiant lips— ! 

The patience of your passion. 

The grave and the gracious doom- 
Are holier than all gladness, 
And lovelier for the tomb. 

O Beauty, holy Beauty, 

On whom the Eternal wars ! 

My choral adorations 
Shall echo to the stars. 



112 



ALL THE MORE 

ALAS, dear love, how humbled sinks your head 
-*»- Before the beauty of the starry choir — 
How suddenly is all your beauty fled 

Before the morning and the radiant Fire ! 

Pitiful are you, to the dusty doom 

Condemned, and to the sorrowful embrace 

Your body hastens mournfully, the tomb 
Shall swallow up the sadness of your face; 

And in the thought of the seraphic Wonder 

The thought of you sinks tired wings and tam( 

The height and depth of beauty, over and under. 
Derides and puts your loveliness to shame. 

The breathless awe of heaven, the white sleep 
Of star on star, makes you ridiculous. 

Our love before the Love that thrills the Deep 
Fades, and the fiery wheels roll over us, 

The holy, implacable wheels of all things moving 
Mercilessly forever. All the more, 
113 



ALL THE MORE 

Dearly beloved, sorrowful and loving, 

I seek your bosom, with the world at war. 

O sad and mortal ! O most dear Desire, 

Holy and human, with the doom at strife ! 

Beneath the beauty of the starry choir 
I bow before you, at the throne of Life. 



114 



V 

EARTH PUTS FORTH HER DREAM 



Behold the tormented and the fallen angel. 
Wandering disconsolate the world along. 

That seeks to atone with inconsolable anguish 

For some old grievance, some remembered wrong, — 

To storm heaven's iron gates with angry longing. 
And beat bach homeward in a shower of Song I 



THE OPENING BARS OF 
WAGNER'S '^RING" 

STEADILY Love begins to breathe and blow 
Into mute law sonorous life and strong; 
The first breath of the giant labours slow 
To lift on his broad bosom all that song. 



117 



ERNEST DOWSON 

/^^ BROTHER, what is there to say to you, 

^^ Now that your feet have passed beyond the sun ! 

Now is the twihght waned, the dark begun. 
And the consoHng memories fall like dew. 
Alas, what has your dreaming brought you to ! 

O brother — ^what is this that you have done ! 

But peace, these are no things to think upon, — 
And evening brings the immortal stars to view. 

As one might lay his palm upon your breast 

And feel the pleading of your heart's demand. 

While yet it throbbed for life, though fain to weep; 
Now, when the stars have gathered you to rest, 
O inconsolable friend, I lay my hand 

Upon this page, and hear it, though you sleep. 



118 



SWINBURNE 

NOT in some twilit temple of lights dying 
And meditative thought, in no far place 
Was he sequestered, whose exultant face 
Was lifted in the broad daylight, defying, 
Like his own ocean's thunder-throated crying, 
The lost, gone stars in the sun-circled space: 
A spirit girded up for a swift race, 
And sent upon his purpose with no sighing. 

Not throned amid the silence of some star 
Deep in the lonely coldness of the night, 

But woven through the meadows near and far — 
A spirit laughing at his own delight. 
That veils his splendors in the sunset's light, 

And moves like music through all things that are! 



119 



SHAKESPEARE'S JULIET: IN THE 
VAULT OF THE CAPULETS 

ALAS, what is this maiden-flower, full-blown, 
And wasted on the mournful marge of death — 
This Beauty, white with sleep, and out of breath, 
That hurries toward the destiny unknown ! 
In the hushed tomb Love makes no humble moan, 
Triumphant over the silent face beneath 
Leaning, with tremulous lips and soul that saith 
Forever, gloriously, one word alone. 

O Juliet, your sorrow makes me glad, 
Seeing how Love and clamorous desire 

Through their own doom show grave and holiest, — 
And Youth, unconquerable and never sad. 
Although it sink beneath the starry choir 
Silent, with all the music in its breast ! 



120 



THE SEVENTH SYMPHONY 

WHEN on the mind's wide-echoed wildernesses 
High music fades, and ever fainter roll, 
Down endless sweeps and distant, dim abysses 

Receding, the storm- voices of the soul. 

The spirit swoons out of the longing face. 
O hungering face turned on an empty goal, 

The vision is but vanished for a space. 

We are but banished for a little hour. 
And set within this wild, unwilling place 

By God, inexplicable, and God's power ! 

But the vague voices grow more full and vast, 
— ^The voice once dimly heard in field and bower; 

Encompassing the long-lost arms at last, 
The old world-agonies fade down the Past. 



121 



LILITH 

SHE loiters in low vallies lily-grown 
That open toward the ocean, and the tree, 
Wind-blown, whereon she leans in reverie. 
Trembles to feel soft arms twined with its own. 
Her smile is like a sigh — ah, were it known 

Wliat stirred that smile so deep, so passionately, 
Dead sunsets, or the everlasting sea, 
Or pale wistaria on the breezes blown ! 

And still she dreams, and still her pallid feet 
Crush the white lilies to the tender sod — 
And still her heart with wild, attentive beat 

Throbs back the pleading passion of the sea. 
Regardless how along heaven's boundary 
Flashes the thunder of an outraged God. 



im 



ROSSETTI 

OMASTERLIEST sweet Heart, whose tight-tuned lyre 
Snaps at the one word, love, — and all along 
The vibrant chords a myriad memories throng, 
Sudden with long-felt want and dumb desire ! 
Even to the utmost straining of each wire 

The numerous notes sound solemnly and strong; 
Deeper than this no modulate tones belong. 
And than this note no notes reverberate higher. 

Lay your hand on its pause, and let it pass — 

One thing too mastering for its heaviest strings 
And holiest. Deeper in the deep heart sings, 

Tremulous as a weak wind on bowed grass, 
The innermost marvel of the soul of things, 

And for it all no words — alas — alas ! 



123 



BEETHOVEN 

ENG ages ere the human dream began, 
From the dim dust, through flow*ret, leaf and stone, 
With slow persistance and laborious groan. 
While the evolving stars their cycles ran. 
Through monster and through beast reptilian. 
And the dumb brute with inarticulate moan, 
This spirit has moved upward to its throne 
For a brief space, which was the body of Man. 

And dwelling there, restless and discontent, 
'Prisoned a term in the repressive clod. 
Shed itself in a shower of shining sound; 
So Beethoven the last progression went. 

Unto that high Supreme from this Profound — , 
From Man, through Music, to concordant God. 



124 



TOLSTOI 

TOOK on this face, and ponder on him well 
-L-/ Who was the first to cleave the unknown seas !— 
Upon this brow broke the new thought of the world 
Whose waves we wander now with furrowing keel. 



125 



VI 

BE BORN AGAIN! 



Who shall lay bare love's inmost meaning, who 
Reveal the sovereign splendor on its throne. 
Or utter forth in language the unJcnownl — 

Old is all language, but all love is new. 

How may I tell you of this love that to 

Your bosom draws me from my very own. 
And wakes me to one need, and one alone, — 

love, the need to be reborn from you! 

There is no word whereby love may declare 

His holy will ; but in the breathless deed 
Of adoration, in the primal prayer 

At the beloved breast, he tells his need 

To the one kind and conquering heart, and she 
In the great silence answers silently. 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



MY Love of you, like an angel. 
Entered in my door, 
To make his silent dwelling 
Beside me evermore. 

His eyes are deep and solemn, 
His eyes are pure and grave — 

Sacred to reprove. 

And vigilant to save. 

Across my singing of you 
He leans a golden head, 

Nightly, when I sleep. 
He sits beside the bed. 

He has your very lips, 

Your forehead and your hair. 
If I should awake. 

Still I find him there. 



129 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



II 



OLOVE, now my life to yours in the moment of its 
greatest need 
Turns for the supreme compassion, and all my senses 
pray 
To your triumphant loveliness — O be great indeed 

And gracious, as befits a conqueror — turn not my love 
away ! 

But in the holy midnight of your tresses hide 

My hunted soul from the arrows of your face. O let 
me lie 
Close, close at your breast, and against the solemn pride 
Of your victorious heart hold close this heart that at 
your own must die ! 

It faints for the land of your far beauty — O let it break 

On the implacable silence of your bosom here ! 
Have pity on your lover — lay your arms about me for dear 
pity's sake, — 
Yet have no pity, pain itself from you is dear. 

130 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 

Hold me — O hold me close, that in the great moment I may 
know 
Your reassuring lips and breast that in the divine pas- 
sion move: 
Be merciful as a victor to the vanquished in the hour of his 
overthrow, 
Merciful as death, and inexorable as love ! 



131 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



Ill 



I CANNOT look on the face I love, for the many tears, 
Nor at the heart I love sing of the heart I love; 
All the songs I had dreamed, where are they vanished away ? 
All for the aching joy something sobs in the throat. 



132 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



IV 

FOR pity and compassion's sake 
Your holy beauty deigned to slake 
My bitter need of you, the pain 
That cried to you, and cried again. 

To my prayer your loveliness 
Whispered yes and whispered yeSy — 
To my need it made reply 
Silently, silently. 

And bravely still you lifted up 
To my lips the brimming cup 
Of your beauty, hushed and still, 
And bade my longing have its will. 

There was pity in your eyes 
At my pleasure, sweet surprise 
And friendly wonder, when you knew 
First my utter love of you. 

As one that barely understands, 
But pities much, I felt your hands 
Clinging, and around me thrown 
Your kind arms, like a mother's own. 
133 



BE BORN AGAIN! 



SOUL of all souls, like waves in the wild sea 
And ocean of all being, toward the shore 
And massive limits of death's boundary 
Moving in trampled lapse forevermore — 

Merge in my wrath, and let our mingled height, 
One instant foaming, catch with kindled crest 

Life's glory; — and with sullen wrath of might 
Thunder in music on death's golden breast ! 



134 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



VI i 

] 

WHAT is this memory, this homesickness, ! 

That draws me to yourself resistlessly, i 

As to some far place where I long tc be — \ 

This exile's hungering for loveliness ! 
Here in the night the face that I caress 
Lies like a moonlit land beyond the sea, 
A kingdom lost, toward which the heart of me, i 

Shipwrecked and worn, beats backward in distress. 

Have I been here before? How long ago. 

And on what pilgrimage and journey far 

Was lost this land remembered? By what star i 

Did I steer homeward? Only this I know. 
That all my being from my breast would go j 

To the dear home and heaven where you are. i 



135 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



VII 



BEND over me, as if all heaven 

Leaned down to love me, let your hair j 

Fall 'round me, while, like stars at even', | 

Your eyes shine in the twilight there — I 

For a kind moment's happy space | 
Crowd the whole world out with your face. 

Now, looking up, I see above me, j 

Through fluttering lashes golden-grave, 

Your eyes, that almost seem to love me, j 

Open in that sweet way they have j 

Like flowers, your faint lips half-apart | 

Make feverish music in my heart. ; 

What sorrow can get in between us ; 

Here where your tresses shut away 

Longing and loneliness, and screen us j 

From all less beautiful than they »' 
Shut out, shut in with you alone 

Here, in this heaven all your own ! | 

Not the whole world with all its treasure , 

Has anything to give that is 

136 \ 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



So dear, so darling beyond measure, 
So marvellous and strange as this, 
When, bending over me, you do 
Make me forget all else but you. 

And now to my blurred eyes come stealing 

Such happy tears, as to confess 
Shames no man, from the founts of feeling 
Confused by so much loveliness — 
My blood trembles — my spirit cries 
In wonder, and worships at your eyes! 

'Tis passed. A moment — and around me 
Rolls the harsh world again; but love 
With one white memory has crowned me — 
Not death itself can rob me of 

That moment, when I saw you there 
Bend down above me through your hair. 



137 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



VIII 

THERE was a time when Love had built apart 
An altar for lone worship in your breast, 
From the world's rage a refuge and a rest, 
And drowned her myriad hearts out with one heart. 

"Be not as all the others " all his cry, — 

With terror of oblivion stung, the soul 
Around one loveliest head life's aureole 

Flings, 'mid the piteous hosts that hurry by. 

But now, to that dear selfhood humbler grown, — 
The woman's heart, so fugitive, frail, and vain — 
Love takes with tears the accustomed lips again. 

And the world-arms steal 'round him with your own. 



138 



BE BORN AGAIN! 



IX 

THE long, the autumn rain 
Bows down across the earth, 
The flowers die again 

At the breast that gave them birth. 

They die at the breast they love. 

They faint and fall away 
At the immortal bosom 

In the twilight of the day. 

So fain I, too, would die, 

At the last breath to feel 
The arms I love the most 

Around my sorrow steal. 

O come with silent feet, 

Come where I lie at rest, 
Stoop to me with your lips, — 

Cover me with your breast ! 

And death shall seem familiar. 
Dear, with your heart above, — 

So often have I died there, 
So oft, in the hour of love. 
139 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



A PRECIOUS burden did my bosom bear, 
And still in desperation for the one, 
That from this breast of dark oblivion 
Might rescue it, I hunted everywhere; 
With that far lovelier breast of life to share 
The sacred secret that with me alone 
Had perished in the outer night. But none 
Echoed my cry, nor answered to my prayer. 

Then through the desert of this life I came 
To the last loneliest marge, and to the sky 

Lifted my hands in anguish and in shame. 
And ventured once again the eternal cry. 

Calling on the beloved without name, 

"Where art thou?'* And a voice answered "It is I !" 



140 



BE BORN AGAIN! 



XI 

STORM and black night without— but in this place, 
This little lamplit room, what peace I found. 
Dear, where the quiet kingdom of your face 
Reigns 'mid the lonely terrors ringed around! 



141 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



XII 



SWEET, so insistent, so inexorably i 
You cleave and cling to me 

1 

Here in this long caress — • 

Humbling my wayward self to your wild loveliness; , 

Little you guess, 1 

O dumb, insatiable eagerness, | 
Little you understand 
All that you ask for, all that you demand 

Of this worn heart that dies | 

Here at your own ! Sweet life that craves and sighs, \ 

Thirsty beauty and blind — ' 

O loveliness, so tender and so kind, 5 

Compassionate lips and dear, ; 
Can it be you, can it be you that here, 

Ceaselessly clamoring, \ 

Demand of love this most extravagant thing : 

In dread abandonment ! ■ 

Will you not be content — j 

Would you have all, all, ] 
Body and heart and spirit for your thrall 

Inextricably one — ? i 

142 I 



BE BORNAGAIN! 

Nay, is it not enough that I am none 
But yours, yours through and through 
Even to the inmost thought 
And throne of all my being, is it not 
Enough that I am yours, must I be you ? 

Then, Heart, to be possessed 

Recklessly hasten! At that lovelier breast 

Give up, — give over! — Take 

The death of selfhood, and for beauty's sake 

The immortal venture make ! 

Heart, let us dare. 

See — is it not sweet, is it not fair 

And worthy of your pain? 

Heart — die again — 

Die now, and for one shuddering moment live 

In the dear being, be 

You herself utterly — 

So from this breast you shall be born again—: 

Heart — give, give ! 



143 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



XIII 



T ISTEN, dear love, now in this solemn light 
*— / The Eternal Silence speaks. What tremulous. 
Sweet, radiant word troubles the moonlit night — 
What is it God is trying to say to us? 



144 



BE BORN AGAIN! 



XIV 



SO royally you dealt with me, so great 
Your queenly ways of love were ! When with me 
You shared your being's bounty, recklessly 
I felt your life, triumphant and elate, 
Beat at my own that stormed the outer gate; 
When all my love prayed to you brokenly. 
With what inexorable ecstasy 
Lift to my lips the cup compassionate ! 

But when deep sleep had summoned you, and when 
I felt the life that late such largess dealt, 

Deep in your breast at battle, play its part 
In the lone fight with stealthy death, ah, then 
Dazed at your side all night I kneeled, and felt 
The tragic beating of one human heart. 



/ i 



145 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



XV 



GREATLY, undauntedly, you did endure 
With brave abandon and supreme consent 
To render up, in the accomphshment 
Of life, your holy body and being pure: 
Great in surrender, in your giving sure 
And weariless, still with magnificent 
Ardor of love, when love's desire was spent. 
Laughed in your eyes the everlasting lure. 

And all that loveliness, the loud world's pride. 
Mine in that moment, and how dear I know ! 

Yet dearer was an hour, when at my side 

You clung with eyes all blinded, and cheeks of snow. 

And beauty broken, — and quivering lips that cried 
Against my lips their piteous human woe. 



146 



BE BORN AGAIN! 



XVI 

n^IIE shoreless and the starless sea of night 
A With solemn tide of radiant moonlight flows. 
And gently through the window-lattice throws 

Upon your bosom chequered shade and light: 

Like a cathedral, bathed in gloom and bright 

With sumptuous splendor, now your body shows- 
In the stern marble of serene repose, 

Where reigned the sovereign and supreme delight. 

Hushed is your bosom's choir, and deep rest 
Broods on the altar, empty is the throne 

And silent is the answer in your breast 
That but so lately echoed to my own — 

Where are you fled from me, on what far quest 
In bright disdain, leaving me here alone ? 



147 



M' 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



XVII 

ITCH had we learned of love, both you and I, 
His large exuberance and great-hearted days> 
Passionate grief and exquisite delays, 
Kinship and mirth beneath the open sky, — 
A refuge from the ancient mystery, 

Love that atones for death in many ways — 
The love that to the most beloved prays — 
Which is the prayer for immortality. 

Yet was the deepest secret still concealed, 

(Tenderly the great Being uttereth 
His truths most awful) till, with eyelids sealed 

In rapture's dread extreme, and breathless breath, 
Your countenance was known; and dawn revealed 

The face of love which is the face of death. 



148 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



XVIII 

'T'HE large days of the everlasting earth 
A Draw to sublime conclusion; in the mood 
Of ancient autumn, awful and subdued, 

She waits the death that is the door to birth — 

With bounty bowed against the days of dearth. 
Holy and steadfast — but drear leaves are strewed 
Over the tomb between her breasts, and rude 

Wail the huge winds that mock at April's mirth. 

Lay your frail arms about my weariness. 

Bare me that pale and patient breast again. 
Gather me to you in one deep caress ! 

For all my heart is breaking, and the pain 
Of life is on me, and the loneliness, — 

And death is dark, and love itself is vain. 



149 



BE BORN AGAIN ! 



XIX 

MOONLIGHT is memory; now the sun 
His radiant race in heaven has run. 
Backward he sheds from far away 
The hght of our lost yesterday. 

On the pillow where your head 
Lay dreaming, on the empty bed 
Falls the moonlight, on the walls 
The lonely light of memory falls. 

Where it rested your pale hair 
Has left its print in moonlight, where 
Your perfect loveliness did press 
Lingers a vanished loveliness. 

Gaunt in the moonlight the road lies 
That took you from my longing eyes. 
And one wide window, drenched with light, 
Stares out into the marble night. . . . 



150 



BE BORN AGAIN! 



XX 



ACROSS the west the star of evening glides, 
^ Toward her, from the under skies that are, 
A sister hght moves upward in her car, 
With the slow pace of beauty that abides. 
The face of heaven is breathless like a bride's. 
But in the solemn vacancies afar 
Light answers light, star toward beloved star 
In sleepless love through the void heaven rides. 

So I to You across the world of things, 
'Mid shining orbs and vapours uncreate. 

Through the wide waste with changeless motion 
climb ; 
So I to You across the Deep that rings, 

'Mid glittering wheels and the fixed stars of Fate, 
Answer forever across the womb of Time. 



151 



BE BORN AGAIN! 



XXI 

OYOU, to whom across the universe 
I move along the orbits of my Song, 
Listen to me, and rise above the throng 
Of dissonant dischords, the primeval curse ! 
Not dreams alone are mirrored in this verse, 

But the great truth that makes Creation strong, 
That the heavens ring 'round with like an iron gong. 
And the innumerable stars rehearse. 

Through harmony, which is necessity 
Embraced with love, the very stars are free, 

And hang in heaven thereby, a sacred sign; 
And I, through you, shall be caught up above 
Myself, and you, beyond yourself, through love 

Console our passion to the laws divine. 



152 



BE BORN AGAIN! 



XXII 

1HAVE seen a wondrous vision — stars I have seen, 
Sunset and moonrise — eyes that laugh and weep- 
MiUions of faces — and the one face I have seen: 
The vision falters, and I sleep. 



153 



VII 

SONG OF THE MOTH 



Night into the universe 

Frees us from the walls of day. 
And Death, into the starry All, 

When ourselves have passed away. 



THE SELF 

WHO reigns within my breast, the sovereign lord, 
How many a day this body that he wrought 
On many a dusty road has homeward brought, 
Or through the ringing surf that 'round me roared — 
Or through my lips the prayer to Beauty poured, 
Or wove the intricate, frail web of thought 
Wherein the flying dream of God is caught — , 
Or glowed against the breast of the adored ! 

How marvellous and strange is he that keeps 
The righteous rather than the evil way. 

And in my sleeping bosom never sleeps. 
But holds the ancient enemy at bay; 

And comprehends the firmament, and weeps 
Over the fallen dream of yesterday. 



157 



WINE OF THE WORLD 

CLOSE at the lips of Life I lay 
And drank fresh ardors all the day 
From the beloved eyes and dear 
That glowed against me calm and clear. 

And reckless still and with unrest 
Closer the silent lips I pressed, 
But the dark eyes no answer gave, 
Burning against me deep and grave. 

Day faltered, night drew 'round about. 
The heart within me was wearied out; 
Then first beyond the dear head I saw 
Shadows and swords of the ancient Awe. 

And closer I clung, and closer drew 
To drink and drain the sweet life through 
The lips beloved, but through my fears 
Their taste was bitter, as with tears. 
158 



WINE OF THE WORLD 



hoiy draught, and eyes that weep ! 
Deeper I drank, and deep, and deep: 

The wine of the world is on my lips. 
And they are closed in sleep. 



159 



ZENITH 

NOW in my breast the sole and sovereign Power 
Puts forth his strength, and through a miUion veins 
I feel the tidal stream of life that strains 
Toward the dark sea, that doth all streams devour: 
This is the noontide of my spirit's hour, 

Through all my frame the imperious rhythm reigns — 
And the one self, that deep in me sustains 
His being, stands fulfilled in fullest flower. 

Now through my brain the blood's rich purple roars. 
Washing her cells with wine of song and dream, 

And in my breast the embattled Splendor wars 
On the dark foe, and rages for extreme 

Wrath and delight; and all my being pours 

Through Love and Song toward the escape supreme. 



160 



THE PRESENCE 

TREMBLING on the utmost brink 
Of thy being, deep I drink: 
Swift the opiate moment nears. 
I behold thee through my tears. 

I behold thy quiet smile, 
Bending over me the while, 
The dear lips that into mine 
Laugh for tenderness divine. 

Ah, too deep, ah, fain to pause ! 
Shuddering, my spirit draws, 
Shuddering, I drink and drain 
Deep of thee, bewildering pain — 

Draught too poignant; in dismay 
Fiercely from my lips away 
I would press thee, dizzy cup. 
Closer thou dost hold it up. 

And closer still and closer, dear. 
Nearer yet, more near, more near — ; 
161 



THE PRESENCE 

Till I faint of thee, until, 
Full of thee, I drink thee still. 

Laughing thou dost lift it up 
To my lips, that satiate cup: 
Thou wouldst have me drink of thee 
Deeply, darkly, utterly. 



162 



THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET 

IN the small bare room brimmed up with twilight 
Hours long in silence I had sat 
By the bed on which my youth lay dying 
And the poet that I once had been. 

Many and many a day he had been failing, 
And I knew the end must come at last — 

The poor fellow — I had loved him dearly, 
It was hard for me to see him go. 

He was both my rapture and my sorrow — 
O how Love unto its sorrow clings ! — 

Many a bitter hour had he brought me, 
Loneliness, and shipwreck of the heart. 

And I loved him. But my mind was weary 

Almost as the twilight of the day, 
And my soul was sullen, and a little 

Tired of his everlasting talk. 

Still from side to side his eyes went roaming, 
As in fever earnestly he moaned 
163 



THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET | 

Old forgotten ecstasies and splendors, ■ 

Ebbed from out my heart forevermore. < 

His poor fingers aimlessly and awkward j 

Fumbled with the covers, and a look ^ 

On his features, fatuous and fervent. 
Foolish seemed and laughable enough. 

Softly stirred the curtains. From the river 

Came a sound of whistles. In the street ! 

Flared the first few lamps. A barrel-organ i 

Rasped a mournful measure. Night was here. j 

! 

"Ah, the cities," cried he, "and the faces, ^ 

Like an endless river rolling on — j 

From what unknown deeps of being risen i 

All those myriads, to what shadowy coast \ 



"Of huge doom in sullen grandeur moving. 
The vast waters of the human soul ! 

Can you see it still — as in an ocean 
Every sea-drop sparkles of the sea, 

"Foams, and perishes — , so for a moment 
From each living face the dauntless, dear 
164 



THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET 

Eyes of Life look out at us to greet us, 
Shine — and hurry by into the night ? 

"Is it beautiful,'* he cried, "my brother?" 
With such fiery question burned his glance, 

That to quiet him in haste I answered, 
"All that you have said is doubtless so; 

"But, pray, calm yourself, my dear, good fellow, 

Let it be, and let it go at that." 
And I drew the covers 'round him closer, 

Smoothed his pillow for him. He began: 

"Do you 'mind that night beside the beaches 
When the whole world in one brimming cup. 

Earth and sky, the sea, clouds, dews, and starlight, 
To our lips wa5 lifted, and we drank, 

** Dizzy with dread joy and sacrificial 
Rapture of self -loss and sorrow dear. 

Deep of Beauty's draught, divine nirvana. 
The bewildering wine of all the world ? " 

"I remember certain lonely beaches," 
Wearily I answered, "nothing more. 
165 



THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET 

Starlight is a usual occurrence 

Any pleasant night beside the sea." 

For my heart was sick and sore within me, — 
The poor fellow, every word he spoke 

Shamed me, there was something in his gesture 
Almost comic that I could not bear. 

Yet I feared this time that I had hurt him 
Such offended silence long he kept: 

On his hand I laid my hand in pity. 
Penitent, — and softly he began, 

"Ah, that night in May, do you remember? 

Nightingales are singing from the wood — 
And the moonlight through the lattice streaming — 

Silence — and deep midnight — and one face, 

"Like a moonlit land, desire's kingdom, 

Luring from the breast the homesick self ! 

Can you see it still" he cried, "my brother?" 
Then in anger broke my wounded heart. 

"Streets I see" I said, "and squalid alleys 
Where one lamp flares foully in the night, 
166 



THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET 

Darkened windows full of empty faces — 
The sad jest and tragedy of Man ! " 

"This," he cried aloud, "this, too, is holy — 
O dear Beauty, in what beggar's guise 

You may hide your splendor, yet I know you; 
Though the ears be deaf, the eyes be blind, 

"Glorious are all things, and forever 
Beautiful and holy is the Real !" 

Now I could not answer him, most strangely 
Touched me those old words I knew so well 

And I felt the night between us deepen. 

Heard the clock that ticked upon the shelf. 

The great silence closing in around us, 

And his hand that he withdrew from mine. 

Suddenly he struggled upward laughing, 

Tears of joy were streaming down his face: 

In my breast the pang of some departure 
Seized me, and I wept, I know not why. 

From a gully of the jaded city 

Drunken laughter filtered through the night 

167 



THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET 

Where I knelt, and toward the open window 
Reached my hands before me as in prayer. 

"Yes,'* I whispered it, "this, too, is holy. 

Even this is holy and divine. 
Though to poets known and lovers only 

The dear face that looks from meanest things 

"And the majesty that moves about us, 

The bright splendor in what common guise. 

dear Beauty, though forever banished, 
Your lost angel by the outer gate, 

"Though no more I see, no more may sound it, 
The bright truth that was my very soul; 

Let me, baffled still, yet still believing. 
In the darkness loyal to the light, 

"Deep within this exiled bosom bear it 
Silent, the great faith forevermore: 

Beautiful are all things, and forever 
Holy, holy, holy is the Real ! '* 

From the proud, pale east the patient morning 
Glimmered sadly on a million rooves. 
168 



THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET 

'Round me the old sorrow was awaking, 
And the breaking of some mighty Heart. 

On his breast his hands in peace I folded 
Decently, and closed the staring eyes. 

He and I had known such days together — 
And I loved him better than myself. 



169 



ESCAPE 

INTO bright forms the formless Being flows, 
Seeking therein its rapture and repose — 
But still the forms subside, and rearise 
New forms: body is born and body dies. 
Then in my body*s cage I murmured, "How 
Shall I escape from this destruction now. 
This travail all in vain?" 

Answered my love, "Escape through love to me 
Who am the road to immortality- — " 
And answered holy Art, 

"Build thee a deathless form where thou apart 
In lonely immortality shalt reign. 
Hasten, and from this fading form depart." 



170 



RETURN AFTER DEATH 



TO the old home, 
1 



Through the wild country ways and meadows damp, 
Lo — I am come: 
Drawn are the blinds, quenched is the lonely lamp 

And dark the door. 

The crickets chirp and the cicadas sing. 

But nevermore 

Comes the quick step, the dear voice answering. 

Long though I knock. 

Never the eager answer comes, they will 

Never unlock — 

So hushed the night, so deep and starry-still. 

Ah fain, how fain — 

From the dark terror and the loneliness. 

Anguish insane 

And dreadful secret that you may not guess — 

The starry Vast, 
Inexorable, of everlasting law, 

171 



RETURN AFTER DEATH 

Tomb of the Past, 

And endless reaches of the ancient Awe, 

With horrors rife — 

Star upon star forever strewn abroad. 

The thrones of life 

In the dark universe dethroned of God — 

With what desire, 

Ah, with what longing that you cannot know ! 

To the warm fire. 

The cosy hearth and faces all aglow, — 

Dear eyes that burn, 

The old, familiar jokes and questions dear, — 

We, lost, return, 

Calling with voices that you cannot hear ! 

Night, deep and still: 

Empty into the dark the windows stare — 

A whip-poor-will 

Cries like the Past upon the patient air — ; 

But where it lies. 

The thing I was, the shell of me, they kneel 
172 



RETURN AFTER DEATH 

With burning eyes, 

And in mute prayer to the Unknown appeal. 

Here on the shore 

And coast of the inimitable night 

Forevermore 

Lies the lost shell and home of my delight. 

Where passion reigned. 

Where ecstasy drew hushed and hurried breath. 

Where Love disdained 

To stain her triumph with the thought of death. 

O pang too sheer 

Of all that has been and may never be ! 

Anguish austere. 

And wild regret of all eternity ! 



173 



THE DEAD POET 

NEW mornings flood the world, starred nights wheel 
over; 
But he is mute. Defeated in the war 
That virgin Beauty wages on her lover, 

He takes his rest, nor heeds them anymore. 



174 



EXILE FROM GOD 

I DO not fear to lay my body down 
In death, to share 
The Hfe of the dark earth and lose my own, 
If God is there. 

I have so loved all sense of Him, sweet might 

Of color and sound, — 
His tangible loveliness and living light 

That robes me *round. 

If to His heart in the hushed grave and dim 

We sink more near, 
It shall be well — living we rest in Him. 

Only I fear 

Lest from my God in lonely death I lapse, 

And the dumb clod 
Lose Him; for God is life, and death perhaps 

Exile from God. 



175 



VANISHED 

HE is not here, your most beloved one: 
With everlasting gesture he has cast 
His garments from him, and in splendor passed 
Out of the sign and circle of the sun. 
He is not with us, he has dared and done 

The great adventure — , and this frame at last 
Lies, like a shell outworn, here on the vast 
Margin and shore of all oblivion. 

There is not any motion in the breast 

Where the quick wave of being came and went- 
The bosom thrills not now to be caressed, 

Nor will the cold lips deign to give consent. 
See — he is vanished — and the careless guest 

Has left his mansion to the element. 



176 



THE GREAT SURRENDER 



A^ 



S at the breast beloved, 

For rapture of sheer excess, 



We render up ourselves, 

And are lost in loveliness; 

So in a moment supremer. 
More beauty-drunken still, 

To the starry choir of All, 
The fires innumerable 

Of the universe around us, — 
Radiant, pure and vast. 

Faint with immortal rapture. 
To the greater Love at last 

Our single, separate selves, 
Freely, beyond recall, 

We render up triumphant. 
And sink into the All. 



177 



TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM 

"Darest thou now, O soul — !" 

IT was the night when my adventurous soul 
Beat at her bars, and toward some ancient goal 
Strained through the darkness and emprisoning gloom. 
Already 'round me all the little room 
Seemed to a vast immensity to spread. 
And on the shore and margin of the dread 
Kingdom of death, sublime and desolate, 
Tiptoe my spirit trembled and elate 
With expectation of far things to be. 

There was no terror now, no agony; 
Only with mute and sorrowful surprise 
I felt within my breast the fall and rise 
Where the old sovereign still held stubborn sway, 
And in my veins the embattled life at bay 
Through all the echoing porches of my frame 
Reluctantly relinquishing his claim — 
The patient pleading of the passionate heart. 
And now all this was as a thing apart; 
But in the faint night voices, in the breeze 

178 



TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM 

Over the fields, the rustHng of the trees, J 

The owlet's cry that quavered for delight | 

And poured itself into the poem of night, \ 

A new and an intelligible word \ 

Spoke to my senses, and my spirit heard j 

In the lone cricket's droning and the shrill j 
Cicadas' shimmering from vale and hill 

The cry of Life, that still in myriad ways ^ 

Beseechingly to the beloved prays, ! 

Seeking therein its immortality — J 

And Time imploring of Eternity — [ 

The ancient prayer from earth to heaven ascend, ] 

Rapture and ritual without an end, — i 
And the far surf that broke upon the shore 
Broke on my heart in dream forevermore. 

Wider and wider did the windows grow, 1 

Toward the soft dark in mute and mournful row j 

Opening like eyes in everlasting stare, I 

And wider all the room — till I was 'ware ! 

Of a vague shape that toward the bedside moved '\ 
And had the gait and gesture of one loved, — 

My mother's, so I dreamed, that now had come ' 

To see me safe abed in the old home, | 
But more like the beloved's was the face, 

179 '\ 



TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM 

And all my being hungered for its grace 
Darkly and dumbly: till with sudden awe 
Those solemn and those searching eyes I saw, 
Kind without pity, patient without scorn, — 

loved and lost before this soul was born ! 
Out of my breast the very self they stole 

That trembled toward that presence, and the whole 
Weight of all years, all anguish unexpressed, 

1 poured out at the patience of that breast. 
All griefs, all fears, all hopes uncomforted. 
And "O and are you come at last" — I said. 

"O take me with you, hasten, let us fly 
To the one topmost star of all the sky. 
The utmost quivering loveliness afar. 
Out of this sorrow of all things that are ! 
Come — let us haste — let us be fled, and find 
Some refuge somewhere surely from this blind 
Ruin and wreck of sheer mortality ! " 
And the roof parted, and in silence we 
Through the cool air of quiet evening rose. 
I saw the earth beneath me in repose 
Glimmering darkly, fields once loved so well. 
The little lonely house, and the worn shell 
Of my old body on the bed, and one 
180 



TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM 

That knelt beside it with bowed head alone — 
Not without grief — ah, not without regret 
Was made that mighty sundering ! And yet 
Over my head the immemorial ways 
Of heaven lured me on, the trackless maze 
And wilderness of God, sublime and wild; 
Then to me turned that face, 

"O foohsh child, 
Where would you seek to? To what loveliness 
And dimmest throne of heaven though you press, 
What sanctuary of remotest flame. 
You shall but find a world of dust, the same 
World of old griefs, whither your spirit flow, 
But the same world of sorrows left below ! 
And in what reaches of the farthest Awe 
Shall you escape the regnance of the law, 
Or on what planet the old face of death. 
Or face of love ? No light that quivereth 
In heaven's holiest in serene disdain 
But is a world of passion and of pain 
Even as ours, and still the sacred Christ 
On every star anew is sacrificed 
For the old doom, from age to endless age 
Making His everlasting pilgrimage 
181 



TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM 

In lonely splendor down the starry way. 
Then whither would you ? " 

And I answered, "Nay, 
But somewhere surely God has His abode. 
Then to that star which is the throne of God, 
His very seat, O thither let us first 
Stream in fierce love and longing, for I thirst. 
Deeply I thirst with deep desire of God ! '* 
And an unbroken silence reigned abroad 
Where died those words, where silently was turned 
That face toward mine beseeching it, and burned 
Deep in those eyes, compassionate and supreme. 
Inexorable truth. "Child, child, what dream, 
What hopeless hope is here ? Where shall you find 
This phantom and chimaera of the mind 
Reared for your refuge, you, that for your rest, 
Have built up God, and given Him a breast 
For pain to lean on, and a heart for love ! 
Though from heaven's deeps to heaven's heights above 
You seek Him, though through all eternity 
You send your soul out in one loneliest cry, 
No voice shall answer, nor no tongue declare 
The Presence that is all things everywhere — 
The flying Dream." Then on my spirit fell 
182 



TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM 

I 
That bolt of truth hke hghtning terrible, — ] 

Nor might I speak, nor might I think, that felt \ 

Out of my soul that thought supremest melt, 

That hope the dearest; but from all heaven there waned 

Some Light that through the universe had reigned \ 

In holiest beauty: and I whispered low, 

"Even as you will, do with me even so." * 

Midway in heaven we paused, was lifted up 

Now to my faltering lips a drowsy cup 

Upon whose cold, clear brim, as on the brink I 

Of nothingness, shuddered my lips, and "Drink" \ 

Cried a low voice, "deep of this draught divine, — 

Oblivion, the world's consoling wine — 

Wine of all tears and sorrows and dark sleep, 

Nirvana, great and blessed — deep, deep \ 

Drink, and in holy love triumphantly ^ 

Render your self up to the All, and be i 

In other selves your immortality ! '\ 

Amen. Amen." What mastery forsook ' 

This soul, unkingdomed then! What terror shook 

This throne of being to its shrillest cry, 

"This weary self, this bitter self, this I, i 

i 
This weak and foolish, this inglorious one, j 

This self, this self, and not oblivion, 

183 



TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM 

This only, this forever, this alone, 

This and no other — !" So my being's wave 

Broke on fate's shore in agony. 

But grave 
Were the calm eyes that searched me, and austere 
The awful voice that answered, "Shall you fear 
To render up what all have loved and lost? 
Would you through timeless Time, a lonely ghost. 
In solitary selfishness apart 
Wander the heavens, from the eternal heart 
Of Life an exile? Shall you dread to move 
Into the blood and breast of all you love 
In gracious self-surrender, shrink to take 
The cup, supreme and bitter, for the sake 
Of all dear life, nor generously give 
Your self up in the self of all that live — 
This broken and bruised spirit bravely yield 
To be ploughed under, furrowed and rent, a field 
Harrowed and cleft, in glorious martyrdom. 
For holier harvests on far days to come, 
Beings more lovely in some worthier shape? 
Nay, would you the one common doom escape 
Of all those silent millions that did bear 
Their part in death and suffered it, nor share 
184 



TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM 

The general lot of all men born to be, 
And the great sacrament universal? See, 
On all these myriad thrones of Life there shall 
No life escape the destiny tragical 
And doom triumphant ! See, the summer's rose, 
That to the sunlight did herself unclose. 
Gently into the dust her head inclines — 
The swallow fleet, that in sweet heaven shines 
A flickering flame, ceaselessly hurries by 
Into the great repose, nor questions why 
In its brief heart, and in the ringing wood 
All songs most musical are soon subdued 
To the great peace; while all things gay and dear. 
Springtime and April of the flowering year, 
In generous self-abandonment consent 
To the sublime and dark accomplishment 
Of life's divine renewals: Loveliness 
On death's divide in a supreme caress 
Shatters her beauty, like a moonlit wave! 
Yea, the one body dear and bounty brave. 
The lips of life, full of all sweet replies, 
That had the breath of Springtime in their sighs. 
That held the immortal boon, the very breast, 
Framed for all joys and born to be caressed, 
In stately splendor through the gathering gloom 
185 



TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM 

Moves without murmur, and accepts the doom — 
Yea, even this, the most beloved, too ! 
Now in this thought perish the thought of you, 
And in the wonder and the dream thereof 
Cease, and be one at last with all you love." 

Then toward those eyes, pleading I turned, and saw 

Pity inexorable, eternal awe. 

And on the starry All that 'round me moved 

I looked, and on the universe I loved. 

And to the dregs that cup of hopes and fears 

I drained with fiery laughter and wild tears ! 



186 



HOLY LIGHT 

LIFE, where your lone candle burns 
-' In the darkness of the night. 
Mothlike my lost spirit yearns 
Nearer in its circling flight. 

Luringly your beauty draws 

Onward with each shuddering breath. 
Till I flutter,— till I pause 

In the radiance of death. 

I am flaming, I am fled — 

All around you reigns the night; 

But my agony has fed 

You a moment, holy light ! 



187 







m 






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